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Comment by fragmede | Hacker News Reader

Apple's spend in this area is totally unknown, other than everybody expects them to. To contrast, Meta has been spending so much in this area that they've bet the company on it. It's anybody's game right now, but Meta already has launched products and iterated on them.

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Apple also spent money on cars too. They likely could have spent billions judging by their tell-tale hiring ads over the past decade. What they are good at is huge amount of cash to operate very clandestinely (just park other RnD in their guidance) and they rarely tell stockholders what they doing other than the mundane usual iPhone, iPad, Foxconn, MacOS news. Meta, Google and Alphabet do things very publicly whether they intentionally seek publicity or unintentionally leaked out (like their near santient AI - they must have it with firing of so many concerned scientists there - only 2 prominent one make it to news, there are others....and didnt released it with OpenGPT beating them)

Apple is built different as a tech company. They will keep everything a secret more closely guarded than the nuclear codes, then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product that leaves everything else in the dust, just like they did with the iPhone. A Quest 2 with an Apple Silicon CPU would, alone, be a game changer. There's probably some advanced head and eye tracking and SLAM AI in there too that makes Meta's stuff look like that clunky Virtuality gear from the 90s in comparison. Probably a thinner, lighter form factor.

You think I'm exaggerating, but Apple has the best engineering talent in the world, a commitment to deliver revolutionary products, and first bite at the supply-chain, er, tomato. Betting against them is a fool's move, no one else will be able to even TOUCH them.

How is working at Apple like?

If I worked there, I wouldn't be posting things like that to Hackernews for fear of black SUVs rolling up to my home.

I would expect them to have white SUVs.

with rounded corners and all...

Re: "They will keep everything a secret[...]then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product" - that was true (in spades) during Steve Jobs era. What mind blowing product did Apple launch since Oct 2011? Under Tim Apple iterated competently, magnificently, [insert your favorite adjective here] but no mind blowing product....

The Apple Watch was launched in the era of Tim Cook, though I suppose it’s more “ipad revolutionary” (nobody had done it successfully) than “iPhone revolutionary” (nobody had tried). I’ll also say the AirPods are the most quietly competent products I own.

One could also argue for the M chips, which were absolutely game changing when they came out.

I still remember the first time I heard about the iPhone. I was like "this is incredible". My friend in Romania asked me to buy him an iPhone - when I told him he would not be able to use it in Romania [1] he said it does not matter, he wants it it looks super cool. When I first saw the Apple Watch my reaction was between huh and meh.

[1] As far as I remember there was only one telecom in US that was working with the iPhone. My memory on this is fuzzy, but I clearly remember telling that to my friend and his answer.

Launched as an AT&T exclusive

> ...then come out of nowhere...like they did with the iPhone

Everyone and their dog knew the iPhone was coming and what it was about.

Everyone knew an iPhone was coming, but the device itself was absolutely a bombshell launch.

The form factor redefined the cellphone standard form factor. Apple would do the same for VR.

I greatly doubt it. Everybody already had a cellphone in 2007, and Apple pricing it at $200 with carrier subsidies tipped the scales in its favour when it came to rapid adoption. There are no such discounts likely with their headset; the estimates say it will be $1500 minimum. And unlike a phone, a headset is not an essential device that goes with you wherever. So it won't create the same kind of excitement the iPhone did.

People speculated correctly that an iPhone would be released under that name. But there was no confirmation until the release.

People are now speculating that Apple will release VR gear. We won't know for sure until release.

You don't remember the phone-bolted-on-to-an-ipod renders. There were lots of surprises, and even then the impact of half the innovations weren't widely recognized at the time. https://theultralinx.com/2014/07/6-crazy-iphone-mockups-real...

Seems to me there's a lot more leaks about Apple than about Google. Where's the Bloomberg reporter dedicated to writing about new PRs on their search engine?

> Meta already has launched products and iterated on them.

and the reception is lackluster. the tech is still not quite mature enough for the average consumer, and the fear of meta's tracking/coercive social networking component in the hardware is all but the most of die hard fans to even participate.

Surely, meta knows this. So what's their end game?

It's been proven again and again that privacy rights are not that important to mainstream consumers. VR's actual problem is there are no killer apps and the novelty wears off

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