Is Mixed Reality the next big thing?

[JeffS7444]

It seems like hardly a day goes by that a Wall Street Journal doesn't publish new content about an alleged 3000 USD Apple mixed reality (VR + AR) device resembling ski goggles. Here's an example:

But even if the rumors turn out to be 100% true, I gotta wonder: Huh? Aside from entertainment, and some specialized applications, which Meta and Microsoft seem to have poured much money into, I wonder if anyone is poised to make money in this space aside from Sony, with their Playstation VR2.

 

[TonyJZX]

didnt Microsoft already do this with Hololens? but i think they were trying to pitch this as an industy quasi military tool.

 

[JeffS7444]

...Or whether this is a weakness of this type of journalism, where a rumor gets picked up by a number of different sites, and takes on a life of it's own, with no one tracking down the original source or questioning it's reliability.

 

[JeffS7444]

didnt Microsoft already do this with Hololens? but i think they were trying to pitch this as an industy quasi military tool.

That was my understanding, and I got the sense they've been pitching it to professional users in hopes that someone would come up killer app for the things.

 

[TonyJZX]

strangely i think both HP and Samsung (????) got into the sub $500 type MR goggles thing but it quitely died a silent death when nobody cared.

MR does have a future with drivers pilots and that sort where the computer can designate targets or 'items of interest' etc.

 

[fpitas]

Wasn't Meta going to show you a wonderful virtual world through similar goggles? Once again, other than Zuckerberg, nobody cared. I guess the software guys may have enjoyed working on it.

 

[JeffS7444]

Speculation about new Apple products has been proven dead-wrong in the past, but Apple has posted this tease for the upcoming WWDC:

 

[Slayer]

Great, more crap to detach people from reality.
Don't we have enough of that going on already? People are already so focused on their little gadgets; many are missing out on the world around them.

 

[Philbo King]

One of the markets is military, using pilots to operate aircraft remotely and for training simulations. Government money...

 

[fpitas]

Not everyone is impressed.

MSN

 

[fpitas]

Honestly, I think a lot of tech article writers just like the word disruptive.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

I think VR is suffering from a quality and killer app problem. Most VR headsets available aren't great (not close to retna, insufficient refresh rate, poor FOV) and there aren't really any killer apps or games. Hopefully Apple's new headset is mainstream enough/high enough quality to get developers onboard.

 

[fpitas]

I think VR is suffering from a quality and killer app problem. Most VR headsets available aren't great (not close to retna, insufficient refresh rate, poor FOV) and there aren't really any killer apps or games. Hopefully Apple's new headset is mainstream enough/high enough quality to get developers onboard.

Even assuming the best of worlds, there's a big question in my mind if the money is there.

 

[JeffS7444]

I recall being dead-wrong about iPod: Couldn't conceive of why Apple would enter the popular but dubious world of Napster and Morpheus. It was only when Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store that it really started to make sense to me: They kept the convenience and instant-gratification of downloaded music, but made it legal and ensured a certain level of quality.

An Apple product aimed at professional users sounds exactly like the sort of thing Apple abandoned a number of years ago when they discontinued Xserve, Xserve RAID, and OS X Server, and for good reason. They were fine as products, but the market for such things treats them as commodities - not exactly Apple's preferred place to be.

But what if Apple did have a killer app for mixed-reality, not necessarily hardware, but an addictive world-building environment. I dunno to what extent anyone has created worlds from within VR itself, but if someone could lure world-builders the way Pokemon Go had folks chasing virtual beasts around town, wouldn't that be something?

 

[JeffS7444]

Because I'm pretty sure that the world doesn't want this:

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23738968/apple-vision-pro-ar-headset-features-specs-price-release-date-wwdc-2023

$3,499 - too rich for my blood, but it does look pretty cool.

 

[TonyJZX]

yeah i wonder what kind of a strange world i live in when things like this are released

Apple = no games ecosystem -> releases a VR set

Microsoft = Xbox -> releases hololens but has no desire to make a consumer set

Sony = Playstation = is on 2nd gen PSVR with a games library ready to go

Facebook Oculus = dunno what the hell is going on here

PC = Vive? Valve Index?

 

[oversky]

OK, let's back to audio.
Does anyone think the "speaker/earphone" will produce a good sound without covering the ear?

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

OK, let's back to audio.
Does anyone think the "speaker/earphone" will produce a good sound without covering the ear?

It won't be phenomenal, but it'll probably be better than most consumer headphones/iems.

 

[fpitas]

yeah i wonder what kind of a strange world i live in when things like this are released

Apple = no games ecosystem -> releases a VR set

Microsoft = Xbox -> releases hololens but has no desire to make a consumer set

Sony = Playstation = is on 2nd gen PSVR with a games library ready to go

Facebook Oculus = dunno what the hell is going on here

PC = Vive? Valve Index?

When Facebook floundered with virtual reality the same thing occurred to me. It's perhaps a product a big name video game company can move. The rest just seems like silicon valley guys with big dreams.