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Comment by sillysaurusx | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if all of this will turn out to be another WatchOS. It’s comprehensive, and frankly cool. But will that be enough to tip the scales in favor of a killer app?

Every new platform needs a killer app. Xbox had halo. iPhone had maps. watchOS didn’t really have one. Hopefully visionOS will.

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The killer app is your current workstation. This thing is worth it alone just by virtue of being able to expand my workstation to an indefinite number of virtual monitors wherever I am alongside my laptop.

This is possible on current VR headsets, but the resolution isn't there for any of them, including the Meta Quest Pro. This is the first one with resolution enough to push it over the threshold.

> being able to expand my workstation to an indefinite number of virtual monitors

Can it do that though? In the presentation, they only showed 1 virtual monitor replacing you laptop's screen - essentially just mirroring the screen once.

Everything else were what looked like native apps, so likely as restrictive as iPad apps, but in (virtual) space.

I remain unconvinced that a lot of people will want to spend most of the time they are awake with VR/AR goggles strapped to their face.

If someone told me as a kid that I'd spend more than half or my waken hours with a screen in front of me I'd have called bullshit on them as well.

On principle if this device was better than our current laptop screens I think it would be a no-brainer. With it being so early in the tech yet, reportedly heavy (why did they think metal was a good idea), and with only so much resolution, it's still hard to justify as a work expense.

> I remain unconvinced that a lot of people will want to spend most of the time they are awake with VR/AR goggles strapped to their face.

Nobody suggested that it should be used all day for most people.

However, when I watched the keynote, I immediately thought how much nicer it would have been at the peak of the COVID pandemic to be using an Apple Vision Pro for all of my Zoom calls on the living room couch (or the porch) instead of being stuck at my desk with at the desktop.

Your workstation already has access to an indefinite number of virtual monitors.

Not simultaneously

.......I think this is how they plan to stuff everyone back into open office floorplans.

You cannot look simultaneously at multiple places anyway.

I mean, watchOS has a killer app already: Health and Fitness.

Apple’s killer app has always been software finesse and hardware craftsmanship. It feels nice to wear and use an Apple Watch.

But cutting edge tech ages like milk. Still prefer a Garmin with a longer battery life.

I mean, watchOS has a killer app already: Telling the time (without picking up your phone).

Kinda, but Fitbit has a range of fitness trackers that do those things with a longer battery life while costing half as much.

I'm reminded of "less space than a nomad", and it's that same magic sauce that might make or break it.

And yet it seems most people choose to pay twice as much to not use Fitbit.

Hence second paragraph

> watchOS didn’t really have one.

What? It's had a few over the course of the product. One of its amazing feature sets is the workout system, general health monitoring, etc.

> I wonder if all of this will turn out to be another WatchOS.

The killer app for watchOS is health + fitness: exercise, sleep monitoring, etc.

Also, the Apple Watch has 60% of the worldwide smartwatch market's revenue [1] at around 50 million units.

[1]: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/22/apple-watch-domin...

This is exactly what will happen. Apple will throw the tech at it. Developers will build things. Then whatever sticks they will lean into.

I use my Apple Watch Ultra every day to track sleep, while integrating with the other Apple products that I own. For me that justified the price point given that I am doing my _hardest_ to improve my sleep (and am not that affected by anxiety about sleep data).

So far, it has more or less panned out as I want to. One thing I'm not happy about is the temperature tracking as I want to know when my temperature minimum is, but Apple doesn't give me that.

Other features are nice to have. One that's really nice to have is Apple Pay on your watch. With public transport (Amsterdam), it becomes seamless to go on a ride.

> Every new platform needs a killer app.

Maybe not. This is a popular argument but I think it's too simplistic. There must be different killer apps for different people. For the AR, there are meaningful applications especially for the Industry use. It's also meaningful for entertainment and games. It's an extension to existing platforms with a new interface. I think there will be multiple use cases for this platform.

> Every new platform needs a killer app. […] watchOS didn’t really have one.

So that’s why the Apple Watch failed, isn’t the number one smartwatch, isn’t the number one watch and hasn’t sold over 100 million units! /s

AR city builder would be amazing with hand tracking, where you can pick up buildings and place them, or just interacting with the mini world.

It just needs an addictive chat app people spend 10 hours a day in.

Perhaps it will be what finally pushes me to try out Furcadia 20 years after learning about it…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furcadia

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