this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
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A year later, Apple Vision Pro owners say they regret buying the $3,500 headset - "It's just collecting dust" (www.techspot.com)
submitted 9 hours ago by remington@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

It's the same story for every VR headset. Buy it, be blown away for a few hours/days, then never touch it again. I did it too, with Oculus Go. The only exception is for gaming, but Apple just doesn't know anything about that. Honestly I'm blown away that they sold as many as they did, but that's Apple marketing for ya, I guess.

It was insanely overpriced, and so obviously intentionally so. Sell a headset that gets plugged into a Macbook for computation and you'll sell quite a few more. It'll be lighter, cheaper, smaller, more comfortable, and easier to integrate into your workflow. But of course that would break Apple's cardinal rule of making 2 products capable of the same tasks. Same reason why your MacBook will never have a touchscreen and your iPad will never drive 2 displays or run MacOS apps or why they stopped making the 12" Macbook.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 2 points 2 hours ago

Well yeah, no shit. No developer is going to make programs for a product with such a tiny user base unless they can be paid by the hardware developer.

[–] jmd_akbar@aussie.zone 38 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Wahaha Hahahahahahhahahahahaha...

Hahahahahahhahahahahaha...

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 20 points 9 hours ago

The sad part is that they're going to buy the next apple gimmick anyway

[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, the only way these were going to become relevant was if they were integrated into the society as a whole, and that can't be done with a 3000 dollar item.

[–] Walican132@lemmy.today 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t think these were released with the goal of relevance. I think they were released for “innovators” to get their hands on and to gage interest for broader implementation.

Basic product lifecycle like I don’t even think these are for the “early adopters” these are for the “innovators” or what ever the first part of product lifecycle is.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 7 points 8 hours ago

Yeah it was pretty obvious that this was always going to be a subsidized R&D project.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 11 points 8 hours ago

I don’t know what they expected. That’s exactly what I thought it would be: a nice expensive toy if I didn’t care about money. If I had insane disposable income, I absolutely would’ve bought one. It’s an incredibly impressive machine even if it is overpriced. But from the get-go it was clear that the market would be super small, so how many things would truly be utilizing it? It’s not like there’s a single game that really pushes it to its limits.

Anyway yeah, I would’ve got it because I like VR it’s fun to tinker with. It would be cool to have a really fucking nice headset. Even just to experiment with the productivity tools and such. I like messing with stuff like that.

[–] Novamdomum@fedia.io 11 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

VR will never become mass market until it no longer means wearing a big silly looking thing on your head. Source: Used to work for a game developer who tried (and like so many... failed) to make their own headset during the VR goldrush in the 90's. Also around that time bought a Forte VFX (screaming headache and eyestrain) headset and can't believe no one's managed to shrink the technology down to a pair a glasses yet in any kind of successful way. Kind of excited by the Bigscreen Beyond 2 though. Still a long way to go. I think the test is simple. Can I wear your VR technology out in public (so no wires, tiny form factor, battery life on par with a smartphone) and not look like I want to be robbed immediately?

Sorry for being so salty about this. It's just bitterness from being a ridiculously early adopter lol

[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

VR will never become mass market until it no longer means wearing a big silly looking thing on your head.

There are various types of HMDs that look more or less like glasses, though those aren't really VR-oriented.

For myself, I don't care what it looks like to other people.

But what I want is a monitor replacement. Something that is at least as good as a monitor. Comfort, resolution, clarity, ability to be worn all day, etc. Give me a better monitor, and I will buy that.

Existing headsets aren't there.

They can provide a wider field of view than a monitor, which is good for filling peripheral view in some games. But they aren't something that people would use as a general monitor replacement. You don't want to code or web-browse all day on them.

If it's not a monitor replacement, then it's a toy, a specialized accessory for a small number of games. I'm not saying that that isn't worthwhile to some people. If I were a hardcore flight-simmer, a genre that is a good match for the technology, that might be worth it to me. But it's definitely not a no-brainer, and it's something that I'd just pull out on specific occasions to enhance a game.

I have a flightstick, throttle, and pedals, and those are, frankly, probably larger wins for flight-simming, and I rarely wind up pulling those out. They mostly gather dust.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Out of curiosity are you familiar with the meta glasses? If you have, what are your thoughts about those?

I don't think they're VR, I think they're AR? nonetheless, what do you think?

[–] Novamdomum@fedia.io 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not too familiar with those. Top of my head reaction to Googling them just now is that I can't stop feeling there's something a little sneaky about them. "What? these totally normal looking yet suspiciously thick sunglasses? No no no... I'm totally not filming you right now".

I think if it's a VR contraption then it needs to be honest about it which is why the Beyond 2 seem to be going in the right direction. I just re-watched a review of the B2 and saw that it only weighs 110g (less than a peach) which is so much less than the Apple Vision Pro at 600g. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on how the VR industry decides to compete with the B2.

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, I'd feel creeped out with those glasses too, lol.

The Beyond 2 looks pretty neat especially with the light weight. In addition to the points you've made above. The main things which stops me from using my VR headset now is that there is no real killer app for me (Beat Saber, and Superhot were awesome but I'm largely done with those now) and it feels a bit lonely doing VR a lot.

[–] LoamImprovement@beehaw.org 13 points 8 hours ago

Juicero-ass headset.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 9 hours ago

I brought it out over the weekend to check out the immersive content that they’ve released since a year ago. I put it back in a drawer after about fifteen minutes. I would take it on vacation for content and for the laptop display feature, but that’s about it.

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 5 points 8 hours ago

These things had such little impact I had entirely forgotten they were a thing that happened.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I tried the in-store demo and was blown away, but even after that short period I wasn’t sold over how isolated the entire experience is. The day may never arrive, but I can wait until these fit on a regular pair of glasses.

[–] Walican132@lemmy.today 5 points 8 hours ago

I agree with the glasses component. This tech will be so cool once it can integrate with what I already wear daily. Just like the watch.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 4 points 8 hours ago

This reminds me of a project I saw some years ago, it was AR glasses with just a monochrome display that would project into the eye itself, adjusted to the individual user by an optometrist.

It was less ambitious than the other projects at the time on what it would be able to display, but this had the distinct advantage of being extremely power efficient and lightweight, allowing the system to fit into a normal glasses form factor.

It also looked cyberpunk as fuck with the user having a glowing red dot in one of his eyes during use, at least to everyone else. I tried a bunch of times to google for what ever has become of it, because I was very interested in the concept as a wearer of glasses.

Does anyone by any chance know what I'm talking about? This would have been in the early to mid 2010s.

TLDR: Want my cyberpunk glasses. Pls halp

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 hours ago