They've absolutely blown Meta out of the water on their value proposition.
They've started with: here's how you would use this device to round off all the rough edges of work / travel / productivity etc.
Whereas Meta: why don't you try to replicate all the most meaningful human interactions here with Mark.
On price: it's a lot, but as they say toward the end: relative to a home entertainment system with a powerful screen + surround sound, it's less ridiculous, plus it's portable.
My prediction: people who have the money to spare will buy it in very good numbers. In fact, I don't think they'll be able to meet demand. If you're already the kind of person who takes flights a lot for work, and who would consider upgrading to the latest Macbook Pro, it will be appealing.
> They've absolutely blown Meta out of the water on their value proposition.
Agreed. But this is because Apple can leverage their existing ecosystem. They’re clearly leaning into that heavily, which is an excellent strategy. Zuck has no existing platform, so they need to reinvent 1p experiences (which feels like talking to Zuck), or rely on 3p devs (that are awkwardly constrained by lack of content and the app-silo model).
> relative to a home entertainment system with a powerful screen + surround sound, it's less ridiculous
This was a lie, and they knew it. A headset can only be used by one person at a time, and I suspect sharing it with others will suck because of the single iCloud account hegemony (this has been a huge problem with iPad already). Home entertainment systems is not targeting overpaid lonely tech workers, it’s for family and friends in the same space. Headsets are 100% isolating yourself from others and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. So this is a solo device for now.
> If you're already the kind of person who takes flights a lot for work, and who would consider upgrading to the latest Macbook Pro, it will be appealing.
I don’t doubt that there are enough tech enthusiasts to saturate demand, but I also don’t think an iOS-like platform is enough, currently, to replace Mac Pro use cases. I think if this was a pro workstation replacer they would have sold that story heavily. Apple has struggled for years to roll out sandboxed apps on macOS but most “pro” apps are still stragglers. But why bother? They make much more $ on the iPhones anyway.
They've started with: here's how you would use this device to round off all the rough edges of work / travel / productivity etc.
Whereas Meta: why don't you try to replicate all the most meaningful human interactions here with Mark.
On price: it's a lot, but as they say toward the end: relative to a home entertainment system with a powerful screen + surround sound, it's less ridiculous, plus it's portable.
My prediction: people who have the money to spare will buy it in very good numbers. In fact, I don't think they'll be able to meet demand. If you're already the kind of person who takes flights a lot for work, and who would consider upgrading to the latest Macbook Pro, it will be appealing.