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Comment by harrall | Hacker News Reader

I know Apple has been known to wait until a technology was very mature before putting it into a product, sometimes years after competitors had already done so.

But Apple Intelligence seems like the complete opposite… like they had to have something now.

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It's not even to the level of Apple Intelligence. If I tell Siri to set a timer for 5 minutes, it goes off, and I say "Hey Siri, stop alarm," it stops my daily wake-up alarm, not the timer. It feels like Siri hasn't gotten any better in the past decade.

It is almost like Apple has an operations guy at the helm who doesn't understand software at all!

The same year the tech industry got taken by storm by LLMs, Apple announced a brutally expensive, niche VR/AR headset with no particular use case. That product was essentially DOA.

I think this is the first time in decades where Apple took a step from their back foot. The Vision Pro announcement during the initial hype cycle of ChatGPT made it look like they were just totally out of step with the industry. It was a dud product that cost billions in R&D, the market for it was unclear, and the industry zeitgeist (and talent) was going in a totally different direction.

So their response was to rush something out the door to avoid looking like they were caught flat-footed. Now it's abundantly obvious they were unprepared for AI, they've failed to ship features they promised, and they have to commit resources to support an additional platform that no one cares about because they did ship that one. Worst of all worlds.

Had they slept on the Vision Pro, I'm pretty convinced they could have credibly kept their powder dry on LLMs, like they've done with many industry hype cycles in the last. People would've assumed they were doing the Apple thing of not being first to ship something, but the first to ship compelling.

Vision Pro is a vanity product for Tim Cook. Once you understand that it makes a lot more sense. It's the only product he has ever pushed, and I believe it's because of the shallow wow factor which fits TC very well. In any case it would always have been a nice product, regardless of price, but at this price it's just nonsensical.

Yep, Tim Cook = Steve Ballmer

> Had they slept on the Vision Pro

2025 versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOs are all being redesigned based on VisionOS, despite VisionPro production and successor cancellation.

Is there evidence Vision Pro production was ‘cancelled’ as opposed to just running its limited course as planned? Are there substantial leaks indicating its successor has been cancelled?

  Early 2024: Apple supplier says planned production cut by 50%
  Late 2024: Apple supplier says cheaper Vision Pro 2 (N109) cancelled
  Late 2024: senior executive moved from Vision Pro to Siri/AI team
  Early 2025: Bloomberg says tethered Apple AR glasses (N107) cancelled

There may be an SoC (e.g. M4/M5) refresh of existing Vision Pro 1 design.

This all doesn’t sound worth reading into. There are other interpretations to supplier leaks. Ditto re: execs moving between teams. Apple AR != Vision Pro. On the flip side Apple is still shipping updates, new content, and selling units. I’ll just wait and see.

It's true that 50% cut in production followed by a halt in production does not mean that Vision Pro development has stopped. A smaller number of employees could continue work and something could be released in a few years, like any R&D project.

In comparison, Meta smart glasses sold 2M units in 5 quarters. Essilor-Luxotica is increasing production to 10M units by the end of 2026. Perhaps to be expected at 90% lower cost than Vision Pro, but those volumes have kickstarted an app ecosystem for smart glasses, which has failed to materialize for the low-volume VisionPro.

If future 2027 Apple AR glasses appear with a subset of VisionOS, they will compete with incumbent products from Meta and Xreal. Some lessons learned and some apps developed for Apple AR could help Vision Pro and VisionOS, if Apple AR gains millions of users like Meta smart glasses.

> Late 2024: senior executive moved from Vision Pro to Siri/AI team

That executive is not having a good time...

She may help schedule realigment with reality, https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/01/24/apple-intelligenc...

> Across Vorrath's many high-profile Apple projects, she has been known for keeping work on schedule, and for implementing rigorous bug testing. Consequently, her move to the Apple Intelligence and Siri team is likely to be because the project needs to be given more impetus.

Had they slept on the Vision Pro, I'm pretty convinced they could have credibly kept their powder dry on LLMs

No shortage of powder at Apple, it's safe to say.

They could have waited with the vision pro too. Just keep the tech in their back pocket until they could release something that was viable for consumers.

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