Rogue01

applebynature said:

Yup, we've known about the required facial scanning for proper fit since June.
I'm curious how big of a fiasco it's going to be to go into an Apple Store to demo a unit. They should do it by appointment with a required face scan before the appointment so everything is ready for you to try out. If they're just allowing everyone to come in to wait around in the store for one of the scarce demo units to be available, then having to go through a fitting and set up process along with being trained how to use it, man that will be a disaster with the time involved and so many waiting around to try it. But on the other hand, I can see people going to the store to try it out and being told, oh you have to make an appointment, the next one is in 3 weeks, and that not going over too well with customers either, so who knows.

At $3,500, no one is really interested in this at all.  So probably won't be any lines of people waiting to try it because people would rather spend $3,500 on anything else.  This product does not solve any problems and AR/VR has never been a popular item for decades.  People don't want to wear googles to run apps or watch movies.  The battery is about 2 hours unless you are physically tied to a power source.  Apple created something that no one really has any desire for.  Maybe super rich people that have nothing better to spend money on.  No one bought iPod Hi-Fi, and that was only $349.  No one bought the $10,000 Apple Watch Gold either and Apple said you had to have an appointment to see it.  The iPhone captured the smartphone market.  This captures no market at all.  Big difference.  I love Apple and have been using Apple products since 1989, but you have to wonder why Apple even made this product when consumers are not really into that product category at all.  Very few consumers use AR for games.

And remember, most consumers wear prescription lenses so another $150 for special lenses will a big deal breaker, especially when prescriptions typically change year after year for people that do wear glasses.

stevenoz said:

Do you need a Mac to use it?
If so, how old can it be?

You know Apple will make it Apple Silicon Macs only to mirror the Mac into the Goggles, with macOS Sonoma.

If Apple offers a 1TB option, they charge 4x the industry standard for 1TB of storage, so now you are looking at $4,000 to run iPadOS apps.  

Apple really needs to stop with their extortion tactics for memory and SSD prices.  It was better when you could upgrade memory and storage on your own, because no one bought the Apple upgrades.  Similar to the printer market in which the ink cartridges sometimes cost more than the actual printer.  Now Apple has the consumer over the barrel and they know it and charge ridiculous prices.

sdw2001 said:

nubus said:

lmasanti said:

it is best to begin from the top… and then easily go down… than begin from the bottom and then try build upon a clunky design. See Quest. (Tesla copied this business model!)

Apple did in the past launch a few products at the top only to massively restructure things. Lisa ended up in part rebranded as Macintosh XL and part in landfill in Utah with Mac being 75% cheaper! Watch 1st Edition - top price of $12000 - and then series 1 had the top price reduced by 90%. iPhone... Apple launched it at $599 and then dropped it two months later to $399 (33%). Apple should slash the price to $2000 and launch an M3/Wifi 7 version this summer for $2500.

That may happen, but not because it “should.”  It happens due to market forces.  The iPhone sold way above expectations, so they could justify dropping the price.  The Lisa was severely overpriced and it didn’t sell.  The Watch had that one option but most were far cheaper.  

Apple did not drop the price of the first iPhone.  They reached a deal with AT&T to subsidize the price down to $199 so Steve Jobs could get the phone out to more people.  But you paid more each month to cover the cost of the phone, but you did not have to pay the full price of $499 or $599 up front, but you were charged sales tax for the full price of the phone at the time of purchase, along with the $199 subsidized price.

And the Apple Watch 1st Edition was $10,000 for the 14K gold model.  It was not reduced 90%.  Nubus has no clue what they are talking about.

fastasleep said:

lmasanti said:

And also remember: the original iPhone cost $699- —exorbitant!— and now cost… $1,200-

No, it was initially $499 4GB/$599 8GB subsidized by a two year contract with Cingular, so the actual price was much higher.  The iPhone 15 starts at $799, not $1200.

Incorrect.  The first iPhone was not subsidized by AT&T at launch.  You paid full price for the phone at $499 or $599, and still locked to a two year contract because AT&T had the exclusive rights for 3 years until 2010.  Later in the year, Apple wanted to get the phone out to more people so Steve Jobs reached a deal with AT&T to subsidize the price of the phone, along with the two year contract, and dropped the price to $199.  Watch the keynote with that price drop.  That is how most phones were done back in the day.  Then with the iPhone X, Apple jacked the price up to $999 and the rest of the industry followed.  Now they don't like to call them contracts, but you can still either buy the phone at full price or 'make payments' over the two year period along with the data plan to pay off the phone.