What does the version in 2040 look like? We’re 17 years on from the first iPhone, and it’s still the same basic device. Incrementally better every year hasn’t meant any radical changes.
I think it's going to become very normalized for consuming movies, TV, and console gaming (2D). Super popular on planes, trains, even car trips for kids.
This was all true with the first iPhone though. That's the point. I'm sure that the Vision pro will be refined, but what will be necessary to make this a mass market device seems more fundamental than just a lot of refinements.
When the iPhone came out, I remember thinking it was too expensive and not for me, but I definitely wanted one and was jealous of the few people I knew who had one. I just don't have that feeling with the Vision Pro - to the point where I feel if I was given one for free I still couldn't see myself using it much.
That's sort of rare for Apple devices - even if I think some things are ridiculously overpriced I would always be happy with a free one and make good use of it.
For me, if I happen to get an opportunity to strap a vr device to my face be interested to play around, but not motivated enough to go out of my way for it.
As a developer, I already spend a fortune on devices and simply can’t see any of our products benefiting from vr…this was true with oculus, and is still true with vision pro.
That was over 13 years ago, and while SOCs have become faster (though OS's, apps, and websites have become more bloated), the devices have become larger (which makes it easier to type and fit a larger battery), and the cameras have definitely improved, but I can't think of anything I regularly do on my current phone that the iPhone 4's hardware wasn't capable of supporting.
The iPhone 4 already replaced many people's dedicated flashlights, watches, cameras, and GPS navigators back then. Sure, software has changed. Online dating is far more prevalent, but the iPhone 4 definitely could run dating apps, even if it was less common. Likewise, paying people through digital apps is much more common now, but it's not like Venmo or PayPal didn't use to run on the iPhone 4.
The way we use our phones since the iPhone 4 released has changed, but not because of hardware changes. I mean modders have gotten Android 14 running on the Galaxy S3, which released nearly 12 years ago.
Likewise, I’d be surprised if apples headset outpaces oculus in any significant way over the next 20 years.
Will it ever be a primary computing device? Not for me..maybe some future generation. Why? Cause I don’t want to spend my workday in a cave. When I pause to think through something, I look away from my monitor etc…
it's not bad for them to have the same fundamentals! it's important to recognize our roots and know the difference between something truly and fundamentally different vs something that is just extremely refined and iterated.