Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

Comment by poulsbohemian | Hacker News Reader

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I'm skeptical about this timeline and this tech, but hear me out... a lot of folks in this thread and in past threads about this subject have viewed this through a consumer lens. But why wouldn't Apple be looking into commercial uses with deep pocket buyers instead? They've expressed an interest in health care in the past, for example. Truckers who need info and who don't exactly have CarPlay in their rigs - this becomes a heads-up display of road / weather / gas info.

Even in the consumer world - my game-playing son already has a headset with a microphone attached while he's on his PS4. The VR headsets with the PS4 (or xbox, or whatever...) have been clunky in the past and had limited games, but it doesn't negate that there are already consumers being conditioned to use headsets here that could be extended in some way.

Finally - look at all the people wandering around with AirPods in their ears... is it really that hard to imagine some extension to this in glasses form or some other lightweight, non-intrusive form where the iPhone has the smarts and the headset is just another augmentation like the Watch?

>But why wouldn't Apple be looking into commercial uses with deep pocket buyers instead?

Because Apple has never makes things with business-to-business intent. Sure, there's iOS MDM, and what little passes for networking in macOS in general (and briefly, the Xserve), but that's the full extent to which they're made for business use.

It's all only ever been higher-end consumer-level stuff, and the fact that some businesses happen to use their gear is more a happy accident than anything Apple themselves explicitly planned for- they didn't have a good rackmounting solution for years after you'd find businesses hacking together server room mounts for the circular computers.

So no, I don't think they'll be explicitly courting businesses- sure, they could almost certainly make a good run at it (especially with the technological edge they enjoy now, but will likely lose to Nuvia-Qualcomm in the coming years), but that's just not how they've worked for their entire existence as a company.

Wasn't there a large calibrated monitor aimed at visual production companies?

>Because Apple has never makes things with business-to-business intent.

But they do target sophisticated professions willing to spend a premium when it makes sense to that profession. And that's what I was trying to convey - there have to be domains out there where it makes sense to have this kind of device OR it has to fit in a similar niche as the Watch.

If you've ever tried to manage Apple products on an enterprise level, you'll find it hard to believe they give a shit about enterprise.

And it's good for them they don't. I can imagine few things more potent at stifling innovation than corporate IT.

Aside from the fact that Apple doesn't have an enterprise sales organization, at this point in time the market for profession AR glasses is probably around 1% of what Apple needs for a product to be viable.

>Aside from the fact that Apple doesn't have an enterprise sales organization

While I agree with the broader point (Apple probably wouldn't do AR for a niche enterprise use case), it does have some level of enterprise sales. I'm pretty sure a company that provides thousands of MacBooks to its employees has an Apple account rep.

How skeptical though? This is a company with an extreme attention to detail, who've demonstrated expertise in compact, high quality, powerful devices. And they're bringing a product to market some time after Meta already has the (from all accounts very decent) Quest 2. I think they've got as good a chance as anyone.

But I don't think truckers and medical enterprise are really the target market. Those people might find a use for this product, but Apple focus their high-end products and advertising on trend leaders, media professionals, creative prosumers/aspirants.

>How skeptical though?

Mostly, because at the moment, it isn't clear to me what, where, when the market for these headsets might be. And Apple, for all their innovation, tends to jump in when the demand has become somewhat clear. These headsets, at least as the world currently sees them, don't seem to have a clear use case that is at a mass market and price tag that makes sense.

>But I don't think truckers and medical enterprise are really the target market

I agree - it was my attempt to reach for some crowd that might actually have a motivation to buy a device.

I don't think Apple has interest in small markets. They are really good at making stuff at huge volumes.

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