Apple hopes to convince people to buy its $3,500 Vision Pro headset using free 25-minute in-store demos::undefined
Is this VR or AR or both? And how robust is the actual software support?
I wholeheartedly believe that Apple is a marketing company more than a tech company.
Every successful mega corp is a marketing company. Just look at video games where the marketing budget is the same as the development budget.
I hate what the company stands for, but they do have brilliant marketing and make beautiful products.
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Mixed reality has a ton of potential seeing the Quest 3, but they are usually not seamless enough.
If Apple can pull this one off then 3500 is a lot of money but some people spend this much on a TV or a bike. If it’s a truly amazing AR experience it might be well worth that price.
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Eh the general consensus is that this launch is a small early adopter phase and they have cheaper versions in the pipeline. They’re only producing <100k units, definitely not going for mass adoption yet
The fact that they changed all references to it from “Vision Pro” to just “Apple Vision” really supports that.
Oh. My. Goodness.
$3,500?!? HAHAHAHAHAHA
And I thought Apple consumers were out-of-touch!
It is not meant for the end consumer at this stage, it is a tech demo and development kit.
The real consumer variant will probably be released in a year or two.
Did they say this or is this your pet theory? I don’t feel like that is necessarily the best strategy, since people won’t develop for it, when there’s no users and no users will appear when no one develops an ecosystem for this thing…
This isn’t really a “pet” theory — just economics. VR represents an entirely new product line, and with Apple’s expansion into services, a whole new way to value-add to those services and entire ecosystem; capturing more recurring revenue. This price point is based on new manufacturing costs at a much smaller scale than their other product lines.
It’s Apple, so it’ll never be “cheap”, but it can’t remain at this price point and stave off competition for long. Within 3 years they’ll either drop the price and introduce a pro version, or release an SE version, that’ll still probably be around $2000-2500 — but bringing it within reach of the people who’d normally buy “pro” devices.
This is interesting because you’re correct that this is almost certainly a dev kit that they’re making people pay for.
However: this is very unlike Apple to do if it’s true. We ask ourselves, “What is the enthusiast or middle class user able to afford for good VR?” And as we’ve seen, consumer headsets are aimed at less than $1000.
So the plan is for Apple to put out an amazing headset with the best materials and best screen and eye tracking and all this, only for them to wait some years before releasing a worse version of this that still costs over $1000? I can’t see how Apple would get beneath this price point. And I can’t see how they’d justify themselves.
So your average consumer isn’t using this anytime soon. Did they just make a weird toy line for the rich?
At best this may help scaling up production of the necessary components (in particular the displays)
Did they just make a weird toy line for the rich?
Well it is Apple, they sell status more than anything else.
You have to start somewhere. The iPhone was a game changer so it took of instantly. Something like an AR/VR headset is still pretty niche even today about 10 years after VR really became a thing.
It should be marketed as a dev kit, but they’re marketing it for consumers
Well, why not capture some consumers at the same time?
This very article says that Apple is pushing it onto “walk-in” consumers.
So?
They need to build hype, and if that means they are pushing a demo on walk-ins,then I don’t have an issue with it as long as they accept a “No thank you” from the customer.
So… I can’t buy it? If I can, you’re either lying, wrong, or have an agenda.
So… I can’t buy it?
If you can afford it you can buy it, the purpose of a product does not need to affect availablility.
you’re either lying
Why go straight into calling me a liar? This just shows that you don’t want to have a proper discussion.
wrong,
This is quite possible, I have been wrong before, and I will be wrong in the future, it happens, and is not the end of the world unless you realy fuck up.
or have an agenda.
I can’t figure out any agenda that I would push regarding the Vision Pro.
In the end, it is a theory, based on resonable data available to me.
A lot of tech, including computers, commonly cost that much for a long time. It’s not a totally outrageous for consumer tech.
Only because it’s an Apple product. They could have made it stream wirelessly from your MacBook, and make it smaller and lighter, but then you wouldn’t have to pay another $3000 for the onboard processors.
They could have made it stream wirelessly from your MacBook
yeah, no. People really don’t understand how much bandwidth you actually need to stream even normal 4k 60hz video, let alone something like this. For reference, when I was figuring out how to dump my pc in the basement and have the monitor in my office, I had to run 12-strand fiber cables to do it.
Parsec?
I’ve tried several remote desktop apps but the compression artefacts very quickly give me a headache. So I splurged for MTP cables and the display port dongles, and it works like a dream. Also, MTP connectors are pure fibre porn.
Yeah, no. Done it with WiFi 6, no problem. Meta has had Air Link for years. Works fine. You don’t understand how much bandwidth you actually need.
you need about 20 gigabits per second for 4k 60hz. Or more, for higher resolutions and refresh rate - which vision pro has, compared to ~6 gigabits per second, that you need for your quest pro’s resolution. That’s why they make these.
And having compressed video streaming to a VR device sounds like my worst nightmare.
Wifi 7 has a peak rate of 40 Gbps.
And is nowhere in any consumer product today. How is it relevant to this discussion?
Vision Pro is also not a consumer product today.
WiFi 7 was all over the devices at CES though. It’s happening soon.
Maybe it does, and it still would (probably) not be enough for two 4k 90hz displays that this has.
It also has basically no battery life and once that mostly useless battery becomes completely useless you are never unplugging that thing from the wall because you bet Apple made that battery impossible to replace!
The battery pack is literally just USB c.
Not impossible, just impossible to afford
I’d buy it if it was the kind of tool that earned me $5000… but it’s still really hard to justify the business use case for VR these days.
Drone pilot?
If I can lie on my couch while typing away on my custom virtual workspace it might be worth it but the resolution requirements make that unlikely any time soon
Also it’s too heavy to wear comfortably for long sessions
This thing is overpriced but there’s no way Apple ships it if they don’t have the pixel density to render text in a way that doesn’t make your eyes bleed. It’s being marketed as a work device, after all.
Yah but my dream setup is something that mimic 2/3 monitors sitting on a desk (or some VR-optimized version of that). In the real world those monitors are each 1080p+ and sitting in full view so the whole “scene” you’re looking at has many more pixels than just what is on all the monitors combined. If you scale that scene down to 4K resolution then the text on those monitors would likely be blurry or unreadable.
Obviously there are other ways to make a 4K resolution usable by zooming way in but that’s much less “screen” real estate than what a real workspace offers.
Have you heard of the Apple Cheesegrater?
Shit I’ve bought MacBooks for work that cost as much as that headset, and my current laptop costs about as much as this.
$3500 is nothing for a computer, let alone a prosumery AR/VR heatset with a computer built in.
$3500 is nothing for a computer, let alone a prosumery AR/VR heatset with a computer built in.
It’s absolutely bonkers. The problem is you’ve been brainwashed by Apple into paying such high prices.
My work PC costs twice that. There’s Apples influence has nothing to do with my Thinkpad.
I’ve worked on workstations that cost as much as a nice car. Apples pricing only comes close because they charge so much for storage. When you’re working with triple digit gigabytes of ram machines it ain’t cheap.
Apple makes by far the best laptop out there. No machine comes close when it comes to performance and battery life. Intel has a decent performance per watt under load, but under light non idle loads it’s not even close. My Thinkpad is incapable of getting decent battery life. Lenovos 10 hour battery life is a damn lie. I get 30 minutes to 3 hours at best. Our work MacBook pros easily get 10+ doing the exact same workload. AMD gets close, but they’re falling down the same trap Intel has been for the last 10 years.
My work PC costs twice that. There’s Apples influence has nothing to do with my Thinkpad.
Please show me your $7k Thinkpad.
When you’re working with triple digit gigabytes of ram machines it ain’t cheap.
It’s a lot cheaper if it’s not made by Apple. Even the 8GB models are insanely expensive.
Apple makes by far the best laptop out there.
That may be but they’re still not worth remotely what they’re charging, and the vast majority of people buying them don’t need them. They just buy into the ecosystem.
Also cloud computing is a thing. If there’s ever anything I need a bunch of power for I run it remotely from my desktop at home or on a cloud VM. And my mediocre desktop will blow the M9 Super Max Ultra Megacruncher out of the water for most tasks.
It’s Apple. I expected nothing less than the most ridiculously priced products to be produced by them. So the figure is eye watering but expected. If these sellout, as some predict, it proves unequivocally that Apple fanboys are the most rabid idiots in existence.
Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 does less than Apple’s Pro Vision and it costs the same. Is it really that overpriced? And the cost goes way way up from there.
it proves unequivocally that Apple fanboys are the most rabid idiots in existence.
Maybe you should look inward before making silly comments like these.
For a high end enterprise geared headset that functions as its own standalone device and doesn’t require any connection to any other computer to work, this isn’t even expensive.
This isn’t meant to compete with something like a Quest. It’s meant to compete with something like the Varjo Aero, which goes from $5-10k.
For a company deciding on implementing AR/VR, the cost to get a Quest Pro for $800 plus a $2500 workstation to power it, vs a $3500 Vision Pro that doesn’t need a workstation, it’s pretty comparable.
For a high end enterprise geared headset
That Apple wants to sell to John, Martha and their 2.5 children.
Company sells goods to consumers, more at 11.
There’s always people out there that want to be on the bleeding edge. People spend $2000+ on just a 4090 card, or $2000 on a stupid folding phone that breaks from a grain of sand.
People even pay +$2K for concert tickets…
Where 2.5 children? There, or here?
Honestly, I don’t even need half of the things that it does to justify the price, for me - just give me a dual 4k, 100 hz displays and a display port connector and I’ll gladly shell out 3k to play vr video games on it.
If these sellout, as some predict, it proves unequivocally that Apple fanboys are the most rabid idiots in existence.
looks like you value money much higher than some others do - interpret that however you will.
If its amazing like revolutionary amazing it would change my mind, if it’s just a vr headset nope.
It’s a mixed reality headset that works. Still too expensive for consumers.
take a deep breath and realize; if you cannot afford this, you are not rich enough to be part of apples target audience.
no matter how much you want to tell yourself that you are.
I didn’t know apple target audiance was a total of 400.000 people which is the total amount the’ll make of these.
Seriously this is a proof of concept for rich kids children to be test users. I doubt it will visible move the needle on their profits.
You have some strange ideas, do android users enjoy being the “target audience” of google?
I am loyal to no brand, own a mix of devices and boycot some. Love tech, fuck capitalism.
It certainly is a big beta test product. I see it like the Tesla Roadster.
Second hand my dude
But the biggest issue is it wont run facebook oculus apps
Why would I want Facebook apps?
I think what was meant here is that it won’t run apps designed for the Oculus Quest lineup (which is based on Android), not the actual Facebook application
iOS doesn’t run android apps. I don’t think many people will care. Most apps can be ported.
The apple vision pro doesn’t have motion controllers like the quest line of headsets, so apps would have to be redesigned for hand tracking instead.
Also, apple said recently that devs have to cannot describe their apps using the words VR, AR, or XR on any platform it is on, they have to be called spacial computing apps, so anything with VR in the title like VRChat can’t get ported without a full rebrand.
Isn’t that kind of like saying that if you can’t afford 2024 MB S63 AMG then you’re not in Mercedes Benzs’ target audience? I bet the profit Apple makes from selling iPhones dwarfs the earnings from selling these goggles even if they’re successful.
That’s a no from me dawg
Technology used to be more about solving a problem or making something difficult easier. This thing has no real use beyond “neat”. But that Apple logo holds some very powerful magic for certain people.
Technology used to be more about solving a problem or making something difficult easier. This thing has no real use beyond “neat”.
I guess you haven’t been following the video game industry for the last half a century?
No I have. Creating a product then finding a use is the very definition of cart before horse-ing. Marketing does most of the heavy lifting for getting people excited about crap they don’t need, and Apple is the king of marketing.
It replaces all your monitors for your workstation in a single portable device. That alone is worth it for a lot of people.
It replaced 1 single 4k Monitor. It can’t do more than that.
It replaces as many 4k monitors as you can fit in virtual space around you.
You get one Mac Window. That’s all it can support .
Everything else is “apps”.
Check their own documentation.
If you say so.
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Buying Apple products is like buying permanent training wheels for bicycles. There are safeguards in place. The average consumer needs those safeguards. They are gullible, ignorant of technology, and they don’t want to learn.
That said, Apple does do it right, at the cost of high prices and less control. Apple dumbs down their products for their consumers, and it works.
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Making comments like this is a huge self-own. There are MacBook users whose software powers a good portion of your daily life.
As a household with multiple severs, a PiHole, and four self-built desktops… and iPhones, and iPad, and an ancient MacBook, you couldn’t be more correct. That person’s comment is insane.
I said “average consumer.” Not people who use the fediverse. I own Apple products. I also own Windows. My comment still stands despite offending other Apple users.
Oh yeah like I wanna get head lice from the snot-nosed kid some mom dumped there so she could go get some Starbucks in peace.
If it’s anything like my other VR headsets the novelty wears off in 10… this runs dangerously close to not getting to the bottom of my cupboard with all the other shithouse headsets
can I put expensive wheels on it?
Can’t wait to see people wearing those around the office. Thinking about it. if you remove the desk, monitors, keyboard, mouse and just sit down bunch of programmers next to each other with those goggles it can actually be cheaper for the company to run an office even at 3.5k per headset.
Imagine how many people you can pack in a small space. You only would need 2ft x 2ft space per person and you can put the entire company on a single floor!
/s
a monitor keyboard and mouse costs more than 3500?
what the fuck are you going to do at work without a keyboard and mouse?
what
Did you even read what they said? Read it again, they were talking about tables and monitors as well.
Also I may need to point out they were making a joke about cramming more people into a smaller space.
Clearly you don’t know what an office desk costs…
Laptops run around $1k. Desks are… $1200, tops? Unless you’re doing the mahogany lawyer desk thing. Keyboard and mouse are less than $100 for the set.
And we also generally don’t need to replace our desks every 3-5 years, because they can no longer support the hardware sitting on them.
The tech bro kit MacBook Pro can easily get to $3k.
So just don’t purchase overpriced Crapple products. Problem solved.
- two monitors and desk separators. So instead of spending $2000 per employee you spend $3500 but cram 3 where you used to fit only 1. Also, you can put windows with nice view and office decor in the VR so the office can now be in a basement with blank walls. You would save tons of money on real estate.
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So instead of spending $2000 per employee you spend $3500 but cram 3 where you used to fit only 1
How many departments have you managed in your life?
Many but I’m not hiring now, sorry.
Windows/Linux based high end laptops are a grand or so, an entry level MacBook can easily be $1500-2000.
MYOB will run on an Intel Atom, barely running above neutral.
