Comment by Nevermark
11 hours ago
> I think they’re still going to make great [software]. It’s just not going to be the cutting-edge anymore.
This is what I see. The biggest test was the Vision Pro. Amazing hardware but only "another iOS" software vision for it, which is a tremendous dropped ball. Another toy-app/media kiosk with its service subscription lanyard.
To me, the Vision Pro screams out that it wants to have a richer interface than a Mac, with spacial friendly windows, a serious work environment, unfettered by a screen boundary. Ironically, to the point of tragedy, the Vision just allows importing of a Mac screen ... as a larger Mac screen.
The Vision screams out for a full spacial development environment, that by being a better place to develop software for any device, Mac or iOS, also pulls developers into creating spacial applications, by default, for themselves as much as anyone else. Again, tragically, Vision Pro development is limited to happening on 2D Mac screens (physical or imported). Xcode, terminal, JIT capable, etc.
Finally, if there is an obvious new dimension of AI that has not been tapped yet, relevent to Apple's greatest heritage, it is the combination of AI and spacial to enable entirely new modes of interaction. AI allows 3D content to be created in more efficient ways than ever before. A perfect and novel fit for spacial hardware and software, that natural habitat for 3D.
Those are three powerful and related software extensions for computing, that will happen, each within the hardware capabilities of today's Vision Pro.
I believe Steve Jobs would have gone all in, to deliver the next big thing in software interfaces, with AI in a supporting role, beyond the Mac in power and capabilities. It would have made the $3500 price tag completely sustainable. Many of us buy MacBook Pro's loaded up well above that price tag.
But, along with software innovation, Apple has lost the bicycle for the mind philosophy.
Steve Jobs would have taken one look at the design proposal and said nobody is going to voluntarily strap that fucking thing to their face and scrapped it on the spot.
Bingo. There is no saving the Vision Pro. No upgrade or alien technology can make it something desirable.
Meta is the best in the space and they’re scaling way back on their VR division. It’s just not working as a mainstream product.
Valve has the exact right idea to not bother over-investing into it. It’s a cool toy and a lot of people love it for immersive cool toy stuff like playing games. I think they know that gaming and porn and porn gaming for the loner demographic is the main VR market. Not a bunch of HR and marketing people who wash and brush their hair daily sitting around at a conference table with mark zuckerberg while they ruin their good hygiene and hair style with a sweaty headset.
Apple might have even had some relative success if they gave half a shit about gaming and made the headset compatible with existing controllers. Heck, make it SteamVR compatible, you’d literally have PC owners who don’t even own a Mac buying one.
We might even say that Meta glasses are more of the right direction but I don’t really think that’s the case either. I thought I read a report or two citing poor sales.
Sure, the glasses have less of the “giant robot dystopia computer strapped to my face” issue but they still have a lot of the same problems. They have the creeper factor, they are something you have to wear that many people have no intention of wearing or have very specific preferences for what they want to wear, and they basically do nothing that a smartphone doesn’t already do.
Can you wear meta glasses to a first date? That’s your test. You can’t: you’d weird out the other person.
On top of that, Meta glasses have no money making potential. They just burn data center compute time for zero post-purchase revenue.