The last major new product was the Apple Watch. The launch strategy for that was flawed. Many may have forgotten it was launched as a luxury product including a $10,000 version (which was ridiculous). This was when the former Burberry CEO was (briefly) at the helm of Apple Retail.
From the 2nd generation it pivoted to health and fitness, which has a market. But the market is still tiny. I'd still call it an eventual success.
But nobody wants VR. Like, literally nobody. It is and will remain a niche, at this or any other price point. Many see it as a stepping stone to AR. I remain skeptical that AR will be technically possible at all. If it is it will takes years if not decades for the tech to get there and there are fundamental problems (eg dealing with focus, rendering true blacks). It's one of these things that is a popular idea in sci-fi without considering the barriers.
I can actually see Apple pulling this within a few years, if it even takes that long. Maybe they'll hang onto it for the promise of AR but I'm skeptical.
I'm sorry, are you calling the Apple Watch, a $70 billion annual revenue sector of their business a failure?
It's hard to tell at this point if this will be a success - even with their financing options, $3500 is a big price, especially a first gen product.
They have definitely taken an existing market (Oculus - that has sold as much as modern consoles) and ramped up the quality of it, while polishing the UI/UX.
I am very excited to see where this goes in 3 years.
e: I guess eventual success isn't quite failure - but I dont think I would frame it the way you did, even with the slight stumbles.
> are you calling the Apple Watch, a $70 billion annual revenue sector of their business a failure?
First, where did you get $70 billion from? I see estimates of 40M Apple Watches sold per year. It starts at $249. I imagine the average selling price is pretty close to that. Let's assume $300. So that's a $12 billion business?
And no, I didn't call it a "failure". I called it a niche, which it is. To compare Apple sold 225M iPhones (at a significantly higher ASP) in 2022.
Tiny market? Apple rakes in ~$40 billion annually from Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats Headphones, and AirTags, with the watch itself being a $15 billion dollar annual segment. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-statistics/
I mean, if you added up every gaming console (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Meta Quest 2), Apple's wearables & accessories division is still far larger.
Nobody wants VR? Did Apple mention VR even once in today's talk? For all your skepticism around AR being technically possible, did you even watch the video? They are directly addressing all the key points around AR that everyone in that space has been trying to tackle for years.
The last major new product was the Apple Watch. The launch strategy for that was flawed. Many may have forgotten it was launched as a luxury product including a $10,000 version (which was ridiculous). This was when the former Burberry CEO was (briefly) at the helm of Apple Retail.
From the 2nd generation it pivoted to health and fitness, which has a market. But the market is still tiny. I'd still call it an eventual success.
But nobody wants VR. Like, literally nobody. It is and will remain a niche, at this or any other price point. Many see it as a stepping stone to AR. I remain skeptical that AR will be technically possible at all. If it is it will takes years if not decades for the tech to get there and there are fundamental problems (eg dealing with focus, rendering true blacks). It's one of these things that is a popular idea in sci-fi without considering the barriers.
I can actually see Apple pulling this within a few years, if it even takes that long. Maybe they'll hang onto it for the promise of AR but I'm skeptical.