The extent of your usage of an iPhone is rarely mandated, and most people I know use the iPhone primarily for photos, iMessage, a browser (usually Chrome? At least in my circle) and an email account.
For those functions, Apple is hardly slamming you with recommended content and ads. Instead, you pay an initial premium for a solid bit of hardware. And if you want more, say if you want to store a lot of photos on their servers ($), you pay for it with more money.
Regardless of platform, the problem is still the same, and the solution is equally plain. Apple and Meta should both be allowed to sell hardware - they're both really good at it! Their software needs an opportunity to compete with the community though, otherwise they'll never have their best interests at heart. The good news is that both companies already hire thousands of software engineers to work on their software. It's economically impossible for them to make inferior software even if we do force them to do the right thing. Win/win!
The GP was saying what would happen in the future. iOS v1 and v2 had the same amount of advertisements as Quest.
They understand the downsides of being tied to ad revenue more than anyone else. They want to make money from Oculus Store and headset sales, just like Apple does with App Store and iPhone.
I’m struggling to think of any aspect of this product—save social—where Apple hasn’t demonstrated marked superiority to Meta over a decade. Software. Hardware. Logistics. Supply Chain. Marketing.
Is the “Social Network” enough to overcome all that? I doubt it.
Meta is going for the same exact play as Apple did with
smartphones, but with VR.
Appeal-wise... yeesh. Mobile phones and the internet were already very mainstream-popular before Apple launched the iPhone.
VR, not so much. The appeal is extremely niche, and there's really just no demand for it.
Geeks were excited about having computers in their pockets. Literally nobody I know is excited to strap a dorky piece of puke-inducing hardware onto their head outside of limited gaming uses.
I'm getting flashbacks to everyone complaining about the lack of buttons on the original iPhone, and how bulky/heavy it was in comparison to the micro-phones of the era. And how it was less powerful than comparable PDAs of the era.
I guess we'll see how well this comment ages in the same time period.
But that's not what I'm talking about here.
I'm talking about the lack of folks enthusiastic about VR. All of the technologies I just named also had a groundswell of excitement around them; people who saw the promise.
I guess we'll see how well this comment ages in the same time period.
I'm reminded of the "hype" around 3D movies and TVs about a decade ago. Remember how that was going to be the next big thing? 3D Blu-rays and stuff?
But you literally never heard people excited about that tech at ground level. From geeks to normies the reaction was a giant yawn. That's what this whole VR thing feels like.