The iPad and the iPhone were heavily criticized when they came out. While both were pushing some good tech, they were also going against the general wisdom of what made a product in each category.
The things that the iPhone was criticised for - no 3G was the biggest one - were easily fixed in the next iteration.
The problems with the vision pro seem more fundamental, primarily cost. Apple really needs to sell it with zero margin or as a loss leader to build marketshare because $3000 is absurd and will really damage its branding "weird face hugger for rich people"
When the iPhone first came out it's cost (even subsidised) was ridiculed. I'm not sure how it compared to BB at the time but for normal consumers it was high, now all these years later it's almost tripled in price and people still line up to buy it. I agree the AVP is going to suffer from the price but I also think Apple isn't looking for this to be the mass market device, more of a way to get the diehard fans in and using it before they make just a "Apple Vision" (no pro). We will see.
I think they are in part counting on it as a status symbol. iPhone, iPad, and a few others are ubiquitous in the US market. Additonally, they kinda "blend in" amidst competitor devices with similar designs.
But the Vision Pro will be eye- catching and hard to miss, with a large profile and unique design.
Going straight for the high end of the market is risky when you depend on developer ecosystems for value. The iPhone was expensive at launch but didn’t really take off until it added the App Store and came down in price.
If they get a handful of celebrities walking around with these things it may become a status symbol. Or it may become a joke, especially if somebody crashes their Ferrari while wearing one.
You would be surprised [0]. I've watched movies on flights with a VR headset, and I'm excited to do that with the AVP - it should be a much more usable experience.
Yes, same goes for any "first gen" Apple product in a category: The Apple I, 128k Macintosh, iPod, Apple Watch.
The thing all these first-generation products have in common (including the Apple Vision Pro) is that they are eminently skippable and usually followed by more popular, better-spec'd lower-cost models within a year or two.
People were very skeptical about the lack of a keyboard on iPhone, and it was missing a few basic features like copy/paste, but it was incomprehensibly small in person and other phones couldn’t touch the capabilities.
Yea. Remember all the memes of the iPad being 4 iPhones taped together? It was widely criticized and considered to be a flop by some. A pointless device even.
It was kinda that, though, wasn't it? I think Vision Pro might be a similar evolution. IMO this is a tool for professionals and media enthusiasts. After proving out some use cases they'll transition later generations like how the iPad Pro has grown into stuff like graphics editing.
What, the iPhone too? The iPad was called a big iPhone (especially when they showcased on stage that you can run iPhone apps with 2x magnification), but I remember there being a lot of hype for the iPhone.
Maybe for some people. A lot of people, esp. reporters and the like who loved their blackberries were heavily negative towards not having a physical keyboard..
It's kind of hard to imagine that this was the reality, given where we are today.
I'm not sure if BlackBerries were really ever a thing in Europe. All the business-type people had Nokia Communicators here (the last of which was released in 2007).
If memory serves right, after first few versions of iPod Touch was out everyone was wondering why Apple is not cramming in the phone functionality as well.
iPhone maybe was criticized by the likes of Ballmer and Nokia/Blackberry execs from business strategy perspective, but I'm not sure that sentiment was universally shared by consumers.
EDIT:
OK my memory has failed tragically. Will leave this comment here nevertheless.
