Apple Vision Pro, what is not convincing?
It will also be a concentrate of technology, but the Apple Vision Pro at the moment leaves more doubts than enthusiasm. Facts and insights
Despite the doubts nourished even within Apple itself, in the end, as the Americans say, the "drop the bomb" happened: the Cupertino company broke into the headset market with the Vision Pro. he did it his way, with a device that is a concentration of style and technology that many will probably buy with their eyes closed just for the logo on the body. Still, there are many things that do not convince the new accessory stubbornly desired by Tim Cook .
THE CRISIS OF THE METAVERSE
First of all, it should be noted that the metaverse is not meshing at all. It seemed like the next frontier of technology and instead it turned out to be an ugly suburb where no one wants to go and live. And from which the Big Techs that have invested billions are now trying to escape.
The first to make the proverbial "U" turn was Microsoft which, in addition to having laid off 11,000 employees last March 10, also closed AltspaceVR , the social virtual reality platform it acquired in 2017 and which deals precisely with developing solutions in this sense by hosting events and social spaces in which people can participate freely.
Microsoft attributed the decision to terminate AltspaceVR to the need to focus on Mesh, the mixed reality world unveiled in 2021 that will allow people to work remotely by integrating with many of the group's software, including Teams.
ALL MARK ZUCKERBERG'S META-TROUBLES
And then there's the metaverse of Meta, the group that believed so much in this curious new version of the Internet that they declined to rebrand it. Zuckerberg's company wants to be able to accumulate at least 75 million users between Facebook, Instagram and VR. The first goal to be achieved is 500,000 monthly active users in the first half of 2023.
Currently the number is less than 200,000. But the main problem is the "retention rate". Of course, the number of loyalists must grow: at the moment, as anticipated, only 11% of users return to Horizon Worlds the following month: the goal for this year is to reach 20%.
DISNEY CUTS THE METAVERSE
The latest out the back doors of the metaverse is Disney grappling with a strict diet to get back into the accounts . The group, according to what sources close to the dossier told the Wall Street Journal , has already eliminated the division that developed the metaverse headed by Mike White .
All 50 team members have lost their jobs with the exception of White who will remain in the company, obviously with another role, as the squa team no longer exists. On paper, the Disney metaverse had all the credentials to break through, being able to create a virtual world in which to merge the Group's countless intellectual properties, from Aladdin to the Lion King , passing through mice, ducks and so on.
VIEWERS GET THE DUST
According to some US media, such as Bloomberg and Windows Central , Microsoft will not only close AltspaceVR but also intends to intervene on the team that deals with the HoloLens viewers, a new version of which was expected within the year.
Even the viewers, after all, as the premature demise of the Google one shows, are in crisis, as they are closely linked to the failure of the metaverse. It is no coincidence that in the parts of Menlo Park to relaunch Horizon Worlds, the metaverse of the Meta Group, one is thinking of emancipating it from VR viewers.
Even Sony viewers risk losing a large amount of money to the Japanese video game multinational, leaving the public indifferent. And to think that Sony, as usual, has invested a lot in it, making its viewers the first consumer products to offer eye tracking capable of immersing gamers in a PC-free quality virtual reality with 4K resolution of 2000×2040 for superior eye to Meta Quest 2.
Not cheaply: seven years after the launch of the first, to take home the Playstation Vr2 released on February 22nd, you need to leave something like 599 euros on the shopkeeper's counter, or the equivalent of a console. Which of course is needed and also costs more or less the same amount. If we then want to try them with a game, we have to spend 649 euros in the case of the bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain . And if you don't have the PlayStation 5, another 549 euros for the Standard version or 449 for the Digital version. In short, the all-inclusive package exceeds one thousand euros.
The experience is worth them all, mind you, and the "non-playful" competitors of Microsoft and Apple are around 3,000 euros (actually, as far as the Cupertino device is concerned, these are only rumors). Sony itself, given the chip crisis, in all likelihood produces them at a loss, below market value. But they don't take off.
Despite the excellent reviews received from the specialized press and the intense marketing campaign, according to the marketing intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC), Sony ended the month of March placing just 270,000 headsets, i.e. 14% of the total units in production for launch.
In the launch window, the Japanese imagined placing two million copies while they barely reach 300,000 units. The shareholders will naturally ask about it at the first opportunity. Also because the company is unlikely to face a price-cut, having increased the price of PlayStation 5 last summer. However, according to Francisco Jeronimo, VP of IDC, a "price cut may be necessary to avoid a complete disaster".
DOUBTS ABOUT APPLE VISION PRO
However, Apple seems to have treasured the mistakes made by others, proposing its Vision Pro at a price that is all in all competitive compared to what it offers ($3500) and mechanics unrelated to destiny from the metaverse.
In the slideshow , for example, a girl is seen wearing them to read the online version of the Los Angeles Times . And here a laugh escapes: why spend 3500 dollars to read an online magazine already accessible from your smartphone?
THE META RIVAL COSTS CONSIDERABLY LESS
If Apple, unlike what has been done by Microsoft and Google, is not aimed at a professional but consumer market, it will have to contend, in terms of price, with Meta's rival Quest 3: it will be released in the autumn at 569.99 euros. If the euro-dollar exchange rate is respected, in our parts the Apple Vision Pro will arrive in stores for 3265 euros: the cost of about seven Quest 3…
Those who just want to fiddle with it, then, would do better to turn to the Sony offer: already available, it's around six hundred euros and has the PlayStation 5 library on its side (of course, as we said just above, you also need to have a PS5 ..).
THE EXTERNAL BATTERY AND THAT CABLE THAT LIMITS THE MOVEMENTS…
Other concerns are related to the battery: external to the viewer and lasting just two hours. The fact that it is separate bodes well for the weight and possible overheating of the accessory, although, on the first front, the Apple Vision Pro still appears bulky and could therefore be annoying to wear, at least in the long run.
But, precisely, the problem does not arise because the estimates speak of a maximum duration of two hours, after which it will have to be recharged. And given that the hours declared by the houses are hardly effective, the Apple Vision Pro could guarantee really short sessions.
This net of the fact that wearing a viewer is tiring for our body: not only due to the weight, but also because it makes you dizzy, so being forced to go on continuous interruptions isn't necessarily a bad thing. And if it were possible to buy batteries to be replaced on the fly in quick pit-stops, then another inevitable expense would appear.
On the other hand, the thread that dangles like a leash behind the wearer's back can create a few more problems, especially in the home: in 2023 we expected to use only wireless devices, especially if they cost so much. Without considering that the wearer of the viewers risks losing his bearings and a cable could be not only annoying but even dangerous, becoming entangled in furniture or furnishings.
THE SKEPTICISM OF SHAREHOLDERS
In short, the doubts expressed by the main observers and high-tech experts crowd the Web. And for once the criticisms are not simple contrarians, made for the sole sake of going against, but lawful and dictated by common sense. It is no coincidence that on the day of the debut of the Vision Pro, Apple closed with a drop of 0.75% on the Stock Exchange, only to then lose further ground. In short, the new Cupertino device has left the shareholders themselves cold.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/apple-vision-pro-cose-che-non-convince/ on Wed, 07 Jun 2023 07:47:29 +0000.