Just having the right few thousand people use it a couple of hours a day a few days a week could have a big impact (or kill it and move on to something that will). Or save a few million and let it languish for years, draining billions.
So yeah, VR/AR headsets aren't going to replace smartphones anytime soon. But they don't NEED to.
And it costs $3500 NOW, first generation product, but there is a reason why the put "Pro" in the name, the implication being that they fully intend to do a more affordable version.
So as usual, it's not going to be any of the extreme predictions. It's neither going to be a total failure that Apple will stop manufacturing them, nor is it going to be such an overnight success that the average joe will stop paying their mortgage and instead get a gadget.
You don't know that, it's way too early to tell.
> Sales will peter out to nothing after the hype because there just aren't a lot of customers out there who can drop that kind of dosh on a computer at all, let alone something that isn't nearly as capable as a computer like a headset
But A) There are people who do spend that much on a computer and tech in general and B) Just because it may lose momentum after the hype doesn't mean it's a failure. If you want such a product to succeed, you are going to have to bankroll it and invest on it for a few year for it to get a legitimate chance.
> Mac studio sales for example are 1% of their mac sales
And the places that have them, wouldn't have any other product. They work with Macs and they will continue to buy these premium Macs until the end of time. It's a small market but it's a loyal market, especially when entire industries (like film post production, the recording industry, pro photography, graphic design) are all Mac-based.
So this just seems like a generic anti-Apple rant.
Seriously, you drop the price once you're past first adopters, which you do after you know what your features are, who your target customers are, and how to make enough of them. Maybe software is different.
Total VR sales are only 15-20million a year. They're not looking to take more than 10% of that with a first product.