Apple is set to unveil a new Vision Pro headset hailed as “revolutionary” by James Cameron and Marvel director Jon Favreau, but calls the clunky device “digital fentanyl” and a “face-hugging alien.” Some people liken it.
Tim Cook and his virtual reality team are gearing up for the launch of a groundbreaking $3,500 device on Friday. The device, which weighs about the same as five sticks of butter, was praised by virtual reality pioneer and Titanic filmmaker Cameron for his futuristic capabilities.
“I think my experience was religious,” said Cameron, who has been working in VR for 18 years. he told Vanity Fair magazine. “I don’t bow down before the great god that is Apple, but I was really, really moved.”
But not everyone was as star-struck as Cameron, and some Silicon Valley investors hoped the hefty, expensive product would sink beneath their ambitions.
“Yes, technology is amazing. I still think it will fail, and I still hope it will fail,” a Silicon Valley investor (who declined to be named) told the magazine. “Apple feels increasingly like a tech fentanyl dealer masquerading as a rehabilitation provider.”
The device weighs about 20 ounces and, when strapped to your head, can shine 23 million pixels into each eyeball, giving you “resolution equivalent to a 75-inch television.”
From a technical perspective, the experience is said to be life-changing.
A Condé Nast reporter who tried out the headset for a few weeks said he was starting to feel it was much better in real life than the augmented version he saw.
Mark Hurst, CEO of online strategy consulting firm Creative Good, criticized Apple’s new wearable technology products, calling them “orphan devices.”
“It’s a face-hugging alien strapped to your face,” said Hearst, host of the WFMU radio show Tectonic. “Apple can create any experience you want. No matter what experience you have, only you can experience it.”
Last spring, the U.S. Surgeon General defined loneliness as an epidemic.
Ann 82 page research book Encouraged Americans to invest in social connections.
Hurst, 51, believes Apple’s new “hobby devices” do not encourage interaction because headsets place users in a digital reality, separating them from other users in their physical environments.
But it’s not just Apple, other companies like Meta also have their own devices in “basically the same category.”
Hearst isn’t opposed to virtual reality as a concept, but he doesn’t think a $3 trillion company should play the role of “gatekeeper” between this new world and its millions of users. ing.
Other tech giants like Meta, Netflix, Spotify, and Google may also be wary of this prospect and are holding back on their services on Apple’s new devices for now.
According to Vanity Fair, the headset also has its drawbacks, and the average consumer may not be able to earn about two weeks’ worth of money from the product.
Some of the issues include the product’s 20-ounce weight, high price, apps that appear sporadically in the virtual world, and the size of the device.
Analysts expect it to fall to around $1,500 over the next few years.
Even Cook was impressed with the first version of the headset when he tried it out six years ago.
The CEO said the first device looked like a “monster”, resembling a giant box with exhaust fans and screens stacked on top of each other.
“It wasn’t wearable by any stretch of the imagination,” he said of the original prototype.
Despite the development of wearables, many analysts believe that headsets are only a highlight for a few niches of people.
Headsets and virtual reality are not new. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has released several bulky devices over the years, but its products remain out of the reach of everyday technology consumers.
Unlike Apple’s iPhone or Macbook, most consumers don’t own a VR headset, and with high inflation and dry wallets, they’re unlikely to be able to afford one.
The first edition is also the first edition.
Consumers may wait until the problem is resolved and the product becomes more like sunglasses.
“In a few years, they will look like sunglasses and cost less than $1,500,” Dan Ives, a senior analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, told Vanity Fair.
Either way, Friday’s launch is a big accomplishment for Apple.
But it remains to be seen how quickly Vision Pro will make its way from store shelves to people’s homes.
