I continue to think that if anyone could actually pull off mainstream AR it would be Apple... I am just not convinced the tech is ready for it to be mainstream.<p>I feel like for it to be mainstream it needs to be borderline invisible (or just looking like normal glasses). Bonus if it can just be contacts (yes I know science fiction here).<p>Part of the reason I think Apple is in a place to possibly actually make it a thing though, is their track record of taking an existing category and fixing usability issues. See Tablets, Smart Watches... and of course Smart Phones.<p>They have also been building their AR platform for years and been getting developers to use it. If they are smart with how they have done that, the work for those apps should "easily" translate to this device.<p>That being said cost is going to be a major issue here, as well as size like I already mentioned. But unlike a certain company... Apple is not known for abandoning projects and I would hope that they are smart enough to realize that this is not a device that will make a profit in the short term
I can’t imagine anyone buying a $3000 headset for “videoconferencing” as the killer feature.<p>Would Apple build a VR headset & new operating system just to position it similarly to the Pro Display XDR? Because that’s what these rumors sound like - a super high end hardware for a very narrow professional market. I think the rumors must be getting at least one or two key elements very wrong because the overall picture doesn’t make much sense.<p>Perhaps the rumors conflate an Apple VR Headset - Mass Market ($5XX) with an Apple VR Headset - Developer Kit ($3000)?<p>On the subject of the belt battery pack, The Information reported that earlier prototypes used a power-tool LiIon battery at the waist; maybe this is incorrect holdover and we don’t see a production device that works that way?
Off-topic: The article uses an image generated with DALL-E (Image credits: "Midjourney / DALL-E 2 prompted by MIXED"). I'm not surprised. However, it's the first time that I see that in an article that is not about DALLE-E or Stable Diffusion, a sign of how these models are changing web publishing (and stock photos/digital illustration work).
> Image: Midjourney / DALL-E 2 prompted by MIXED<p>Oh, good grief. I'd rather have a generic logo or headquarters as the article image than some misleading computer-generated fantasy of a new product.
If the reported price ($3,000) is anywhere near accurate, then Apple really risks falling into the HomePod trap - the original was great, but costed more than mass-market wanted, which opened up a huge hole for Amazon's Alexa speakers to come in and dominate. Then, when Apple came out with a cheaper device (HomePod mini), the market had largely moved passed it.<p>To be clear, this is not my judgement of quality at all - only a market assessment based on pricing.
> Apple bets on XR video calls as ‘killer app’<p>I certainly have complaints about video conferencing but there's no issue with current gen video calls that requires a $3000 face mask with a tiny battery life as a valid "solution".
I am short term skeptical, but long term VR/AR are going to absolutely dominate computing. The moment you can teleport across the country with a photorealistic "retina resolution" avatar is the moment this product category is going to shoot off to the billion user level. Apple is right to focus on collumications, but I doubt we are on the right side of the uncanny valley yet.
I'm not expecting much from the 1st gen. The 1st gen Apple Watch was very slow and pretty useless as a result. The 1st gen iPhone was also missing a few features that were pretty common place on other phones of the time like picture messaging. 1st gen Apple TV was pretty basic as well if I remember right.<p>Gen 3 will probably be where it starts picking up pace and the ecosystem starts building up around it.
The AR application I want is what I had always hoped to get google glass for ages ago and that is face recognition.<p>I'm terrible at remembering names, it would be wonderful if the glasses I'm wearing when I look at someone would pop their name (and any other note I've created on them) off to the side of my view for quick reference.<p>That done with a really clean interface would be worth it to me alone with almost no other functionality.
I'm very curious about the optical hand tracking as the main input. Yes, there's still a lot of progress in that area recently but the main problem remains: it gets really tiring to waive your hands around in front of you and there is no haptic feedback and very quick pressing of different buttons like on a controller.
>XR video calls as ‘killer app’<p>Getting closer to THX 1138's personal pleasure device <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn-Sa0MlFkg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn-Sa0MlFkg</a>
If true, it looks like the most un-apple product since iphone. It is probably years until they officially showcase this product. The potential backlash from the market is enormous.
Take my money? I just want a mobile desktop environment that I can set up anywhere. I have strange places I need to do work and the hunched over laptop situation is killing me.
Who’s the target audience for this? Businesses only? I don’t see consumers plopping down $3k for this in the mass numbers that would matter to Apple’s bottom line.
so...if this has a computer in it, and can be a productivity device the way an iPad could be....maybe. It would give more screen real estate, less desk, maybe the same apps. I can just about see how someone might expense it if they had to work on private content in public environments a lot...<p>$3k is really just too much for a fancy monitor for productivity apps, though. I'm bought into the concept, but not the price.
For those baulking at the cost:<p>Various estimates size the corporate travel market at hundreds of billions of dollars per year.<p>$3000 isn't that expensive compared to a business class plane ticket, and hotel.<p>Apple has a history of convincing people to pay lots of money for things (the $1000 iPhone wasn't that long ago!)