Exactly how many people do they think are going to fork out 4 grand for one of these things? Don’t get me wrong, I really want one. But like hell paying that much for it. I’m gonna wait a while until the price comes down.
It’s expensive (and too expensive for me), but if you put it next to a MacBook Pro with a few upgrades it’s the same price and those get bought without thinking about it.
To become more mainstream it definitely has to be cheaper, but there’s something bothering me about how all the other prices are acceptable.
MacBooks are more of a working device and the upgrades are optional, the starting price is cheaper, I know. Still, these price points aren’t unheard of for Apple.
The first iPhone was unreasonably expensive for really not much usability. Edge network only. No webapps designed yet. No app store. Not even a compass.
The first one of these will be like that, then if it catches on at all there will be a “worse” model that doesn’t have as nice of a casing but is more usable and maybe comes with some sort of phone plan or something. I’m hoping this actually does catch on because VR is already so cool, but is waiting for that “connection” with others to happen.
For an example, the best connection experience I have had in VR was the zero gravity sports game Echo Arena, specifically in the lobby. They did such a good job with the 3d sound it actually felt like there was someone above me talking. But since there is no eye tracking, eye contact cannot be a thing. If they nail that though, work meetings in a virtual environment COULD be a thing. Spending time with family from hundreds of miles away COULD possibly work okay. Not as good as in person but a reasonable substitute.
But they have to nail it. Right now that one or two experiences is the best I have had. The rest just felt like halo on the Xbox 360 over Live. Cool, but not like they were sitting in the room with me.
I had the original iPhone. it was $500, which is about what I paid for my original Razr ($400), but it did 1000x more. only in retrospect was it clunky and awkward to use— at the time, it was like magic! Everything else at the tie was far, far inferior. it did far more than anything else in it day than most people had ever seen, and it was so much easier to use. and, as far as functionality, that came quickly later. also, the edge network was just about as good as anything else, as not that many people even had access to 3G yet. but even $500 isn’t $4,000. that’s a huge leap and not really a solid comparison considering that the Vision Pro isn’t really a mobile device at all— it’s a VR Mac with a full-on M2 chip and an R1 co-processor for all the VR stuff.
But, even considering the high-end optics and so on, it should only cost about $2k-$2,500 before offering processor and memory upgrades based on the pricing of their other Macs.
edit: for $4k, it should have an M3 Pro, 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.
Originally iPhone was not subsidized by the carrier, I paid nearly $1,000 for mine. I also was not aware of Mac rumors and the 3g came out a couple months later.
You must have gotten it indirectly - I still have my 1st gen, 8gb iPhone and it cost $799. I took it out of the country and rooted it soon enough to use it in The Netherlands, but there was a price drop weeks later and it was hundreds cheaper.
Yeah, it cost a lot more outside the US the first year
For some reason I was remembering my brother spending like $700 for his original iPhone, whereas I waited for the iPhone 3g and spent like half. Mine was plasticky vs his solid feeling phone, but mine technically did more with the 3g network and even a compass! I was hoping this scenario would happen but maybe it’s wishful thinking and incorrect memory.
the 3G and 3GS (the 3rd one) had a polycarbonate backing and came in black or white. they were also available in both 8GB or 16GB models for $500 or $550 IIRC— but you could get them severely discounted if you signed up for a wireless plan ($99/$149). the original model only came in the 8GB model for $500 with no sign-up discounts.
They were selling $999 monitor stands. Apple customer are easily milked.
Something Apple totally missed with this was the gaming industry. If Apple had put more effort years back to make Mac Gaming a thing, they could have easily reeled in VR ports of so many cool games. Even with their current catalogue of games, it’s meagre compared to what Windows has.
This is changing quickly.
I still don’t get what the compelling use for these is supposed to be. There’s nothing they’ve shown so far that doesn’t seem more awkward and intrusive than it is beneficial, unless maybe if you exist in true isolation at work and at home.
