They're laying the platform groundwork early which makes sense since it's a bet on what's next for human computer interaction.
If they can pull the glasses off there's huge opportunity there for all sorts of things which will be really interesting and better than looking at little glass screens. Without that hardware it's super niche and I don't think has much broad use.
If anyone can pull it off when the hardware is ready it'll probably be Apple.
FB is obviously trying really hard to be there too, but I just don't think people will want it to come from FB (and forcing Oculus under their brand makes it so that it would have to be).
Magic Leap will be to whatever Apple ends up making as General Magic was to the iPhone.
The rough idea was directionally correct, but way too early with hardware that just wasn't good enough.
The same could have been said about the chromecast.
I think price matters a lot and Apple already loses a big audience because of that ( it's not their market, i know).
By reference, the IPad is still priced reasonable cheap.
Ps. The Oculus works well with minimal setup.
Facebook’s other big disadvantage is that their platform (oculus) is separate from mobile and Apple’s platform (iOS) isn’t.
This makes it a lot easier for a Apple to leverage existing devices in laying platform groundwork (which they have now been doing for years).
It also makes it easier for them to leverage the phone computing for the glasses hardware similarly to how they did that for the watch.
FB doesn’t have this option really and I’m not sure how they’d do it without it. Try and put all the hardware in the headset itself? Seems less likely to be able to ship first or be as nice as what Apple will be able to do.
One of the most interesting AR games I’ve tried was Kings of Pool same-space multiplayer. So you set up a pool table (=billiard?) and walk around the room around the same table. Worked quite well, the game (AR & network) could keep up with the relatively low tempo of a turn-based game well enough. But that was mostly interesting because of novelty, not necessarily sticky for long-term repeat play.
What prompted me to explore the tech and write the blog post was indeed work on something else than a game.
Even though people rarely play it while on a sofa, would it be workable with the current Apple AR hardware?
Making a game where people have to sit in front of a table, or stand, or hold the device up, is very restrictive and instantly makes you niche. You get more of a potential slice of the market making a cool 2D puzzle.
The tech was cool, worked reasonably well until -A- you moved a lot -B- low light. But unfortunately the market is about playing on the toilet, in public transport; or playing late at night in bed, in the dark. None of which really worked with AR.
As far as I see this going, it's still is looking for a "killer app" (I hate that term).
My best guess is we'll see this used a lot more in a business environment and even then, glasses are a far better approach (hint hint, hold on to your whiskers).