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jrodan94 t1_j5n8wag wrote

Want to present a balanced take , Apple is very very good at this kind of thing. Newest leaks say they’re expecting low sales and that this is just the first step for them. Apple is very good at taking all of these things that already exist and then having one moment where it comes together on stage in a way no one else has had the follow through in yet. If they can truly build a completely natural interface for VR that we haven’t seen before w this then they are already good. They know it won’t sell but they’re building a platform. I think it’s silly to write Apple off on this front. I also really look forward to what this announcement does for the competition. It’s going to definitely attract the mainstream eye to vr in a way only Apple can and that’s good for the entire space

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Sylvurphlame t1_j5oowft wrote

> Apple is very good at taking all of these things that already exist and then having one moment where it comes together on stage in a way no one else has had the follow through in yet.

I think this is what gets into the core of the arguments where people call other people fanboys or haters. iPod, iPhone, iPad, iWatch Apple Watch… none of those were brand new unheard of product categories. Digital music players, smartphones, tablets and smartwatches existed before. But Apple managed to deliver more of an experience. Everything integrated, everything purposeful and (mostly) focused. You can’t in good faith argue that Apple hasn’t significantly changed the landscape of any product category it enters.

Edit: and that’s not to discount Android’s more experimental legacy, pushing features and concepts with each iteration. And often first.

Focus has gotten a little less as the ecosystem grows, but that was inevitable as a mature platform tries to be everything to everybody. Nonetheless, I trust Apple more than Facebook to actually launch a product that pushes mixed reality mainstream. I still don’t know one person IRL that has an Oculus/Meta Quest and Google Glass already tried and unfortunately failed. HoloLens may have been mortally wounded losing that military comtract. Sony is apparently doing well enough that they’re launching a PlayStation VR for their fifth generation consoles, but I don’t know if they could have any appreciable influence on making mixed reality commonplace.

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ShaderzXC t1_j5p4m97 wrote

Yeah PlayStation VR will probably be good, but it will have no real impact on wider VR/AR/MR. It's more like a PS5 add on.

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zabacanjenalog t1_j64pqqs wrote

They didn’t do anything with the iPhone. It was for a couple of generations an incredibly shit product.

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haasvacado t1_j5o1sch wrote

It’s insane to me that Zuckerborg thought Facebook can just pivot into a core capacity for consumer hardware/software innovation. No, dawg. You broker adverts. Your competition is Apple and Google. Microsoft and Sony always in the mix, too, for that matter.

Historically bad business decision on the part of Facebonk.

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kirkum2020 t1_j5ompje wrote

Don't judge them on a few bits of shitty software they developed as nothing more than sanitised spaces to show investors around instead of freaking them out with VR Chat.

It's the hardware that's the important point here, and nobody in the market gets even close to beating that price to performance ratio.

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AkirIkasu t1_j5pqxyk wrote

To be fair, the thing differentiating Meta from every other player is that Meta doesn't seem to be concerned with actually profiting from their hardware; instead they intend to draw their profit from software, NFT-based items, virtual concerts and other digital software bullshit properties.

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kirkum2020 t1_j5q3hbp wrote

Let's not forget who this is. They profit from data. You're the product, remember?

If VR takes off the way all these companies seem to think it will then the company with the cheapest decent headset is going to make bank watching your every move.

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AkirIkasu t1_j5q5mxm wrote

Oh absolutely. And don’t forget that their inside out tracking is a bunch of cameras that look at everything in front of you.

While they are not currently sending that info back home to my knowledge, I don’t have enough faith to say they wouldn’t ever do it.

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t0slink t1_j5r3twy wrote

You do realize Apple's top priority for 2023 is getting into the ads business?

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Sylvurphlame t1_j5optke wrote

Their focus on the metaverse is an interesting one. I’m not sure what their long-term monetization strategy was. With Apple, Microsoft, Sony, they sell actual products. Facebook monetizes user habits to sell ads. Not sure if Zuckerberg saw the metaverse as some sort of brave new world for advertising and engagement metrics or if he just really personally got tired of waiting for mainstream VR and decided to throw his company behind forcing it to happen.

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kippypapa t1_j5pf7ym wrote

It’s the engagement metrics because what’s more engaging than being immersed in a virtual world. Can you smell that sweet ad moolah? I sure can’t.

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Sylvurphlame t1_j5pfqxl wrote

> Can you smell that sweet ad moolah? I sure can’t.

Which brings in the idea of just how immersive it will really be, until we can figure out a way to simulate taste and smell. Sight and sound, yep. Doable. Haptics, getting better. Taste and smell require direct chemical interaction, so you’d have to skip that and figure out the SAO style full dive.

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kippypapa t1_j5wrg0w wrote

My attitude is that if people want to live their lives in a virtual world controlled by mark Zuckerberg, then fine, it’s their life. I won’t do it

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