The people who are excited enough about the Vision Pro and have $4000+ in fun money lying around to buy it on launch day are probably firmly in the demographic who have Apple TV/Apple One already.
The Vision Pro is definitely for early adopters, they've priced it so high that "normal" consumers won't even consider it.
Unless this flops completely and developers/Apple can't figure out actual use cases, there _will_ be a Vision Regular with all the stuff removed that's not 100% necessary for the main use cases (like the stupid "see your eyes from the outside screen :D) and it will be a lot more affordable.
The Vision Pro is a $3500 device. That price point is high enough that very few people will be able to afford it, especially because it doesn't really seem to be a game-changing device.
Anyone with the funds to spend $3500 on what is essentially a toy will almost certainly already have a $10.000 television way more suitable for watching Netflix on. Why spend the engineering effort making an app only a handful of people will ever use?
Yeah, maybe for other non-VR. But at $3500,the Vision Pro is DOA for the most consumers. At $3500, it's going to take several iteration before they can price one that your average consumer that's normally willing to spends $500-1500 for a ipad/iphone/MBP would be willing to buy. I wonder what they'll leave out to get to that price.
I don't think Apple's intention/expectations were that the masses would buy the Vision Pro. At least not the first couple of iterations. If anything, its more likely a test bed to see if there is a future in it.
I'd taken the "too insignificant" as more of a threat than an observation.
I don't think anybody is expecting the Vision Pro to be anything other than niche - but it's very expensive pointy tip of what Apple hopes will be a brand new market for them. This thing is called "Pro", solely to indicate there's going to be a cheaper, mass-market version coming next.
Apple have been exceptionally good at making money recently - but less so at being innovative (aside from maybe unifying CPUs).
Apple's not afraid of losing money on Vision Pro. They're afraid of losing face in the market. They need this to succeed. They've patiently waited on the sidelines for a decade of VR - now they've leapt into the ring, they not only need to beat the incumbents, they need to build a larger ring and win in that as well.
To succeed they need the hardware (which they seem to have) - but also they need content to access once it's on your head. No content, no mass-market.
Apple needs Netflix to be inside their magic-goggles way more than Netflix needs to be there.
Nobody's cancelling their Netflix account as their new goggles don't support it. Many people might not buy the goggles if they can only watch AppleTV.
So why might Netflix not want to roll another client?
Well I suspect as AppleTV is a direct competitor and Apple has delighted in sitting between users and their subscription providers, skimming off their %.
Apple would love to have a Keynote with Disney, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix and the rest on stage. All the big boys pledging fealty to Apple and undying support for their new shiny - but wtf is in it for them?
In their shoes I'd only get inside the goggles after I'd got a very long and generous list of commitments for the future met - so if the goggles take off, I share in the rewards. I'd also ensure my non-attendance was widely noted and commented upon to provide some pressure.
What's the worst that can happen? I get to sit back and watch Apple absolutely haemorrhage money producing expensive content that shows the value of the headset, but can only bring in money from the relatively small number of people with it.
It's not even as if Apple can punish you for not showing support. Any time you decide you do want to create a Vision Pro client, you just announce it's ready - and Apple would have a hard time explaining why it couldn't be released.
Obviously I don't buy every product Apple launches but up to now I could see me using every one of their products, even if I don't think it would make sense buying one because it's too expensive or I don't need it. The Vision Pro however is something I have doubts could be useful even if it works perfectly and despite its price tag.
It’s obviously not going to appeal to most people because of the price. Apple isn’t stupid and knows this. Reviewers complaining that it’s too expensive for the mainstream are being stupid when they say this.
Also, if what someone wants, is lots of monitors for their Mac. Why not buy a bunch of monitors? It seems also stupid that people harp on this point. It’s good that you can bring your Mac screen into Vision Pro, but that’s clearly meant so you can use the two devices together.
The big problem for reviewers is the lack of native apps, especially those that take advantage of volumetric windows and immersive spaces.
I say it’s a problem for reviewers rather than Apple, because it’s so compelling to develop for this platform that I have no concern about what we’re going to see over time. People complain that there aren’t more apps at launch, which is a valid complaint, but there isn’t much Apple could do about it because you need experience with the device to know how to design for it. People rushing to get things ready for launch day haven’t had that even if they had access to the hardware.
I bought one too, and I think its amazing. The Apple TV content presentation is incredible.
Once you get used to the immersion it can provide, it makes the entire existing paradigm of hand held, desk or lap-rooted screens as output seem like a compromise that we will look back on like the dial on a rotary telephone.
Vision Pro needs more software, and it needs Apple to lead a move from stationary to room scale experiences.
I don't know that developers being burned from existing App Store policies is why the software is slow to come. Development of apps that effectively work in Apple's "spatial" concept is not easy.
It isn't even clear what truly spatial software aught to be able to do, because there aren't enough examples. Even Apple's first party apps are ~2D windows. You have to look at some of the highlighted games to get an idea for what is actually possible.
Vision Pro implies a non-pro version could be possible. Cheaper and less funcionality. Either way its an interesting new product and knowing apple they wont ditch it after a couple of years. At this price its just going to be the pro users and richer people that buy it, but hopefully its going to spawn competitors from Samsung and the Chinese companies, at a much lower price but with less functionality.
Netflix is missing a big opportunity by not supporting all 200 Vision Pro users.
The Vision Pro REEKS of Post-Jobs. It’s too tech savvy to be a consumer Apple product.
Part of the magic of Apples brand is they’ve never really been one to jump the bandwagon. This feels more like a Microsoft product, like that table surface thing from 15 years ago.
This is not much more different than the first iPhone focusing on what people were already doing daily with their phones and computers: taking phone calls, SMS, e-mail, browsing the web.
But now there are hundreds of different other uses, many of which are considered more important than the original ones they focused on.
Getting people to buy a device to do something entirely new (physical games, metaverse, ...) is much harder than getting people to buy a device that does something they're already doing, but better.
That's just a fact of life: people like sitting by themselves in the dark watching movies and TV. They will in the future too. If the Apple Vision Pro is as good or better than a huge TV and surround sound stereo, then for people with smaller apartments it could actually be a good deal. Many people could get by with just an iPhone and the Apple Vision Pro as their only devices (The Vision Pro probably needs a couple of iterations to be good and comfortable enough, but it seems pretty close already)
I'm sure there will be plenty of games and social apps on the app store in the near future. I'm sure it'll get support for third party controllers for such games. But Apple is not focusing on that, just as controller support in iOS and Apple TV isn't a huge focus point for them in the marketing.
The wild speculation about the Vision Pro is kind of maddening. It hasn't launched yet, and it won't for over a week.
The articles about sales figures are equally crazy. No-one knows how many Vision Pro's Apple has sold, except Apple, and if they claim that they do, they are just pulling numbers out of thin air.
Presumably a wait-and-see approach? No one buying an Apple Vision Pro doesn't already use these apps, so it's not like they're missing out on a huge new user base.
On the other hand Vision Pro's price will go down and quality will go up. Apple has the deep pockets to continue to invest until the technology really delivers at a mass market price. This wasn't really there for the labor intensive high-touch Starcruiser experience.
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