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It's because it has a M2 and can be used as a monitor for an ordinary MacBook

Is it really a laptop replacement if it requires a laptop to do that?

The current iPad Pro has an M1 and can be used as a monitor for an ordinary MacBook. I suspect the iPad Pro refresh due this year will have an M2.

The iPad Pro and iPad Air are already on M2

Whoops, I was wrong, the Air is still on M1 and the pro is on M2

The iPad has fully evolved into a laptop replacement, just not for everyone. This will probably be the same.

Yeah, first-mover advantage. Heard that before…

In the presentation today, Apple specifically mentioned connecting to your macOS device as a seamless experience. In my opinion, this will be another "content consumption" device like an iPad that integrates with macOS devices and is not a replacement for them.

For now. I actually see them moving to this if it takes off both for battery life and computing. Them even labeling it as a spatial computer, shows there positioning this to be their future.

> Everyone. It's a laptop replacement.

It is? As in it acts like a normal Mac OS machine that happens to be attached to your head, holds all your files and stuff without communicating to another PC?

Can I just run IntelliJ on it and write code?

Or does it just replace your monitor(s) ?

Can I run NVim on it?

A vt100 should be enough for anyone

> Can I run NVim on it?

Nooo it's an emacs device.

But seriously, can the early adopter type FAANG income techie use this for work standalone? Can it even act as virtual monitors for a Mac Studio?

Has an M2 in it, so full laptop replacement.

Probably more like an iPad replacement in terms of software though.

Its not a full laptop replacement if it doesn't come with a keyboard.

It has a virtual keyboard so it’s a replacement.

Likely you can use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with it.

Some day, yes, some one will make a VR headset that outclasses the laptop for many computing roles.

I'm one of those people who wants that day to arrive while I am still working, so I follow this space with interest and buy some of these devices.

So far, no headset has gotten close. The Quest Pro is probably the closest, but still very far from the goal.

This Apple device looks like it will get closer still, but it likely will fall short -- at least for a few product generations.

So I think the big question is will this product achieve enough traction to keep existing until the tech gets better and the price gets lower.

A VR headset that focuses on being really good at web apps (including complex ones like GitHub codespaces) would get a lot of the way there.

> Angry Birds became a multi-billion dollar franchise for being one of the first iPhone games.

It's sobering to think this has now been so long ago but still: this is absolutely not true. Angry Birds came out end of 2009 and games were available for more than a year by then. See top 2008 here https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/12/apple-reveals-most-do... and top 2009 here https://www.ign.com/articles/2009/12/09/the-most-popular-iph...

You ruined that with facts.

It's no more a laptop replacement than iPad is. Almost 4 years down the road after the release of iPadOS and it's still a failure as a laptop replacement save for a few well-selected niches.

And the new VisionOS (or whatever Apple will decide to call it) will have to be even more restricted than iPadOS was compared to MacOS just because of the tighter coupling to your body.

> Everyone. It's a laptop replacement.

Can you build apps on it?

The WWDC demos suggested that it would be a full development device, and it has the same M2 processor as the M2 Macbook. It is basically a Macbook in a different form factor and with a bunch of extra sensors.

iPad also has the same processor as the macs yet it is significantly less capable than a Mac.

You can develop some toy apps with Swift Playgrounds, but Apple isn't developing realityOS using iPad.

I agree with your general sentiment, except with one small caveat. I don't think it' s a laptop replacement per se. It's more like an immersive glue that will allow your laptop, if you have one in the future, to remain as a standalone device, but through handoff/side-care/R1 it'll stitch everything together into a virtual environment.

When you take it off, your laptop, phone, whatever will still work great as normal.

It's a caveat because for a lot of people, I don't think laptops will be necessary in the future. My mom doesn't have one but is obsessed with her phone. Probably one day laptops will mostly be for pros.

But yeah, in general I agree with everything you said.