Chris Trottier on Nostr: If reports are true, it looks like the Apple Vision Pro is not long for this world ...
If reports are true, it looks like the Apple Vision Pro is not long for this world and is about to be discontinued.
If so, this will rank among Apple’s biggest flops, joining the likes of the Apple III, the Newton, and the Pippin. That said, I can’t call it Apple’s biggest flop—oh, believe me, Apple has a graveyard of them.
But this particular failure must sting Apple CEO Tim Cook personally, because the Vision Pro was supposed to be a major part of his legacy. Steve Jobs introduced the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone—whatever you want to say about him, those were world-changing products. Tim Cook, while not the same kind of visionary, has tried. To his credit, he’s rolled out a few nice products, like the Apple Watch, but nothing on the level of the iPhone. The Vision Pro was supposed to be that game-changer—VR done the Apple way.
So why did it fail?
I have a personal belief about technology: if it succeeds in the gaming world, it has a future. If it fails in the gaming world, it’s likely to flop in the broader market. Look at AI, for example. AI was initially pushed in gaming before it expanded everywhere else. It succeeded because gamers saw its value, like NVIDIA’s DLSS. That’s a big reason NVIDIA is one of the most valuable companies today.
Now compare that to NFTs. Companies have tried—and failed—to push NFTs as a viable technology. Ubisoft is still trying, but gamers hate NFTs more than they hate loot boxes, and that’s saying something.
And then there’s VR. VR has had some success in gaming, no doubt, but it’s been slow. VR generates a few billion dollars in sales, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the mobile, console, and PC gaming markets. Meta realized that to validate VR, you first have to validate it with gamers.
Apple’s problem is they don’t care about gamers. They’ve been hostile to gamers going all the way back to Steve Jobs’ era. Even now, Apple makes it impossible to use an external GPU with their devices, which alienates gamers further. If Apple wanted to, gamers could flock to their devices. Who wouldn’t want to game on something like a MacBook Air? But Apple has never made gaming a priority.
Enter the Apple Vision Pro. It’s a $5,000 headset (at least, here in Canada) with limited gaming functionality. Compare that to the Oculus Quest, which costs a fraction of the price and supports gaming out of the box. I’ve used the Quest myself. While I don’t spend much time on it—due to battery life, weight, and motion sickness—I’d still choose it over the Vision Pro because it’s far more justifiable for the cost.
Apple didn’t bother to validate the Vision Pro’s technology with gamers or invite game developers into the ecosystem like Meta did with Oculus. Instead, they targeted aspirational Apple lifestyle consumers. For a month, that worked. People lined up to buy it, the same way they do with any new Apple product. Remember that meme of the guy driving a Cybertruck while wearing the Vision Pro? That almost sparked an investigation.
But those buyers weren’t interested in the functionality of the Vision Pro. They didn’t care about its utility. They bought it to be seen with it, and once their moment in the sun passed, the headsets started collecting dust. Because at the end of the day, aspiration doesn’t sustain a product—utility does.
If the only group to validate a technology’s utility is gamers, and you’re hostile to gamers, well, no surprise your product flops.
The Apple Vision Pro isn’t dead yet, but it’s on its deathbed, and the priest is giving it last rites.
https://kotaku.com/apple-vision-pro-vr-mixed-reality-report-1851731279
If so, this will rank among Apple’s biggest flops, joining the likes of the Apple III, the Newton, and the Pippin. That said, I can’t call it Apple’s biggest flop—oh, believe me, Apple has a graveyard of them.
But this particular failure must sting Apple CEO Tim Cook personally, because the Vision Pro was supposed to be a major part of his legacy. Steve Jobs introduced the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone—whatever you want to say about him, those were world-changing products. Tim Cook, while not the same kind of visionary, has tried. To his credit, he’s rolled out a few nice products, like the Apple Watch, but nothing on the level of the iPhone. The Vision Pro was supposed to be that game-changer—VR done the Apple way.
So why did it fail?
I have a personal belief about technology: if it succeeds in the gaming world, it has a future. If it fails in the gaming world, it’s likely to flop in the broader market. Look at AI, for example. AI was initially pushed in gaming before it expanded everywhere else. It succeeded because gamers saw its value, like NVIDIA’s DLSS. That’s a big reason NVIDIA is one of the most valuable companies today.
Now compare that to NFTs. Companies have tried—and failed—to push NFTs as a viable technology. Ubisoft is still trying, but gamers hate NFTs more than they hate loot boxes, and that’s saying something.
And then there’s VR. VR has had some success in gaming, no doubt, but it’s been slow. VR generates a few billion dollars in sales, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the mobile, console, and PC gaming markets. Meta realized that to validate VR, you first have to validate it with gamers.
Apple’s problem is they don’t care about gamers. They’ve been hostile to gamers going all the way back to Steve Jobs’ era. Even now, Apple makes it impossible to use an external GPU with their devices, which alienates gamers further. If Apple wanted to, gamers could flock to their devices. Who wouldn’t want to game on something like a MacBook Air? But Apple has never made gaming a priority.
Enter the Apple Vision Pro. It’s a $5,000 headset (at least, here in Canada) with limited gaming functionality. Compare that to the Oculus Quest, which costs a fraction of the price and supports gaming out of the box. I’ve used the Quest myself. While I don’t spend much time on it—due to battery life, weight, and motion sickness—I’d still choose it over the Vision Pro because it’s far more justifiable for the cost.
Apple didn’t bother to validate the Vision Pro’s technology with gamers or invite game developers into the ecosystem like Meta did with Oculus. Instead, they targeted aspirational Apple lifestyle consumers. For a month, that worked. People lined up to buy it, the same way they do with any new Apple product. Remember that meme of the guy driving a Cybertruck while wearing the Vision Pro? That almost sparked an investigation.
But those buyers weren’t interested in the functionality of the Vision Pro. They didn’t care about its utility. They bought it to be seen with it, and once their moment in the sun passed, the headsets started collecting dust. Because at the end of the day, aspiration doesn’t sustain a product—utility does.
If the only group to validate a technology’s utility is gamers, and you’re hostile to gamers, well, no surprise your product flops.
The Apple Vision Pro isn’t dead yet, but it’s on its deathbed, and the priest is giving it last rites.
https://kotaku.com/apple-vision-pro-vr-mixed-reality-report-1851731279