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Comment by vasco | Hacker News Reader

> Not even Apple is like Apple anymore. A similar backlash happened a few weeks ago, when Apple launched its super-high-tech virtual reality headset. The early response on social media was mockery and ridicule—something Steve Jobs never experienced.

I definitely remember a huge viral wave of mockery about the iPad in 2010. It was everything from stretching things and calling it "innovation" (as in, just a big phone), comparisons to women's sanitary pads, you name it. Mockery of Apple and Apple fanboys was one of the peak internet memes of the time. Mocking AI is tame in comparison.

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The AirPods were also roundly mocked and described as so weird looking no one would want to be seen dead wearing them when first announced.

A few years later, it seems like we all have them (or a very similar-looking competitor) in our ears.

What makes one mocked product succede while another fails?

Google Glass and its users were mocked and it was a complete failure.

The iPad was mocked and ended up as an underperforming division, yet still the market leader because everyone else dropped the ball really badly.

AirPods were mocked but they are a wild success helped of course by the removal of the 3.5 jack.

Well, Google Glass probably failed either because it didn’t work sufficiently well (the technology just wasn’t there yet) or because the purported utility it provided wasn’t actually that desirable.

AirPods probably succeeded because (despite the at-first weird aesthetic decisions) they turn out to be far more convenient than wired earphones and nice to use. If the battery life and the rate of charging, for example, had not been as good, I don’t think they would have taken off.

So I think mockery doesn’t really have anything to say about the potential success of a product; it fades rapidly anyway whether it succeeds or not. Humans get used to things incredibly quickly and are very adaptable. It’s both a virtue and a curse (because the other side of the coin is that we get bored quickly).

If I were (even) more of an Apple fanboy I might argue that AirPods succeeded because Apple knows how to make fun, decidedly non-clunky products and Google doesn’t because it’s not in that business — it sells eyeballs to advertisers whereas Apple sells beautifully crafted hardware/software combinations to creative individuals. If Google had been first to try wireless earphones, they might have flopped and put everyone off the idea.

> Well, Google Glass probably failed either because it didn’t work sufficiently well (the technology just wasn’t there yet) or because the purported utility it provided wasn’t actually that desirable.

> AirPods probably succeeded because (despite the at-first weird aesthetic decisions) they turn out to be far more convenient than wired earphones and nice to use. If the battery life and the rate of charging, for example, had not been as good, I don’t think they would have taken off.

You're missing the social aspect to the rejection of Google Glass. IIRC the term "glasshole" was also a reaction to the privacy-invading aspect (little to no indication if the person is recording or not). AirPods had none of that, so if you liked how they worked, you could use them and not really bother anyone.

I think the Apple Vision Pro will fail for similar reasons, at least as something that people take out and about except in very limited circumstances. I had the additional downside over Google Glass that obscures the wearers facial expression (even despite their overwrought attempts at a technical solution).

The same thing that makes any successful product succeed. The mockery is independent of the success.

This just shows how people live in their bubbles. Are you frequently hating on products like that? It's very likely your social bubble does too, and that's all you hear.

My own social media bubble proclaimed awe and interest in the new possibilities, presented their new startup ideas and hopes.

If you're arguing that initial criticism doesn't meaningfully predict future potential, then I fully agree. We've seen this in everything from EVs to streaming services to a megacorp like Amazon : plenty of rocky if not outright lampooned beginnings.

However if you're attributing widespread product adoption to the erosion of cultural conservatism towards [new thing], then I think that underplays the role of product iteration. AirPods shrank their form factor and eliminated the cigarette-butt aesthetic, EVs became highly quality competitive, Amazon expanded from being a bookstore, etc.

I wasn’t arguing that (though I agree); I was just adding a further data point to support the claim that mockery of Apple products is nothing new.

Sure — products evolve and potentially assume a less controversial (mockable) form, but I think most of the change is in perception. Almost all of the products we use daily would probably look completely weird if we could somehow see them for the first time out of context. I’m currently typing on a tiny little touchscreen QWERTY keyboard on a device that is ostensibly a mobile telephone; none of this makes sense when first presented but we’ve all come to accept it as being as normal as breathing air.

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