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Comment by _annum | Hacker News Reader

Apple's strategy suddenly became clear to me while watching the Quest 3 promo video: they are delivering a platform, xrOS – an operating system – and not simply a high-spec VR headset.

The strength of the ecosystem will encourage it to be smoothly integrated into daily use, as opposed to being an awkward gaming device you pick up when you want to mess around in VR.

We'll see. Exciting times, the surprise announcement makes me optimistic for the quality of Apple's offering – Zuckerberg is worried.

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I think Zuckerberg is excited. Apple will only expand the market. I think it will be strictly beneficial to Quest regardless of what the blog/tech comparisons say.

Apple expanded the market for smartphones, Blackberry couldn't take advantage. I see similarities here.

Zuckerberg should have gone with AR to begin with, VR is too much of a shift for people to context switch easily.

I see similarities, but I also see one of either:

1) Apple makes a VR headset, and it's OUTSTANDING, but it costs $1000, and that's just too much money for the average iPhone user for something they aren't going to use very often.

2) Apple makes a VR headset, and it's about the same as the Quest, and it costs about the same as the Quest, and it doesn't get that much traction because the average iPhone user isn't going to use it very often regardless of price, and the ones who would probably already have a Quest or Vive or what-have-you.

Apple's VR headset will be OUTSTANDING for sure, but it is most likely going to cost much more like $3000. This is what all the rumours are hinting at.

They seem to be aiming it mainly at business, makes sense at this price point. But Apple is notoriously bad at feel for the business market (federated apple IDs still don't allow UPNs that are different from Emails which basically breaks it for 90% of enterprises!). They are also not great at business software at all and they basically have no foothold. All they do for business is the mac pro that suits some niche markets which they update every few years and then they sell obsolete hardware for the original price in the intermediate years. And some general Mac/iOS hardware but other people supply most of the productivity software.

I really wonder how they will make this thing a success. But yeah Apple is great at creating hype and that hype will hopefully kickstart the metaverse dreams a bit again.

That's especially true since they won't actual compete since they'll be 5 times the price of the other. The Quest will be the demo for the Apple VR headset, and the Apple VR headset will give VR hype that will boost Quest. If they weren't just FAANG amplifying FAANG, I'd be happy to see such a win-win.

I'm pretty sure Netflix is out of the club. I can see why no one wants to remove it from the acronym. It's probably ok now that Facebook is now Meta.

So now it’s Meta, Apple, Google and Amazon? Although Google is now Alphabet so that bad joke doesn’t work either

MAAA. I suppose Microsoft deserves to be in the club. MAMAA.

I propose using Facebooks old name and switching one A to I (iThings?). Then we could call them MAFiA.

But Thai already stands for (and describes the actions of) the Movie And Film Industry of America

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