News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple is betting on augmented reality by TheOtherHobbes on Monday March 20, 2017 @09:35AM (#13914041)
Nope. Apple's biggest advantages were always a sensitivity to untapped consumer interest, and marketing genius to get consumers excited about products that integrated smoothly into their lives.

The latter has certainly disappeared. See e.g. the stampede away from the Mac.

For the former: it's debatable how much untapped consumer interest there is in AR.

Glasses would work if they were slim and stylish. But if the motivation is to "beam content into the eyes of the user" and not to empower users to do non-gimmicky cool new things they couldn't before - that's not going to happen.

It's the difference between a power tool approach and a menu approach. If you give people power tools and let them play with them, they'll do amazing things.

If you give people a menu of options - tweak a photo, tweak a photo a different way, take a 180 degree panorama, passively watch a VR movie - that's extremely unexciting.

Cook has always been more of the latter type than the former.

Re:Apple is betting on augmented reality by eastWestMath on Monday March 20, 2017 @10:31AM (#13914489)
"Stampede away from the mac" is a complete overstatement, Apple still makes the most profits of any computer manufacturer.
Re:Apple is betting on augmented reality by collyw on Monday March 20, 2017 @11:24AM (#13914940)
Agreed. There is a lot of ranting in the tech community, but for your average user they seem as popular as ever.