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KruppeTheWise t1_j28q4ye wrote

Reply to comment by invent_or_die in Saudis take control of US augmented reality company Magic Leap by MicroSofty88

Consider the original iPhone in 2008 and the latest one available today.

Apply the same level of funding and development to VR today and 15 years from now, you'll barely be able to tell a regular pair of glasses from a VR pair.

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AintThatJustADaisy t1_j29eduj wrote

The original iPhone was good and sold well

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KruppeTheWise t1_j29inbx wrote

The original iPhone was an iPod with phone capabilities. No app store. If you tried to tell anyone how big apps would get in 2008, they would laugh in your face.

The current gaming and meeting gimmicks VR is viewed as are analogous to slapping a SIM into an iPod and saying here, iPhone.

The company that makes the VR equivalent of the original iPhone could end up with something worth what the current Appstore is worth, with around $100 billion gross, if they can catch that lighting and stay on top of the market.

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zerogee616 t1_j2ce2v5 wrote

The first iPhone, from a UI/UX perspective, isn't really that different than what we have today. Sure, processing power, camera capabilities increased over the years, but the core product is similar in how it looks, acts and operates.

It also wasn't sold on a "It'll get better guys, I know it sucks now but you just gotta hang in there" promise, it did what it set out to do from the get-go and everybody just kept building on it.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j2dtgpy wrote

The first iPhone didn't have an app store. It was literally an iPod touch with a SIM card in it. You're mistaken.

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zerogee616 t1_j2dtyz0 wrote

The app store has zero bearing on UI/UX. That was the result of a business philosophy decision to allow other parties on the platform. iPhones (and most smart phones in general) look, feel and control the same way, minus Apple and Android's specific differences. People liked it when it came out, basically made the playbook for smart phones and wasn't relegated to a niche product for 5 years like VR is and demand compromises from the user, because it did the job at the beginning.

I owned an iPod Touch around that time, with an app store. Minus technical capabilities, it's really, really not that much different in terms of user experience to a phone today.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j2dwvad wrote

You're litterally arguing my point here dude. There were a host of proto-"smart" phones from the likes of Nokia (the N95 that had apps, GPS superior camera etc) Blackberry etc.

Most people couldn't see the point in them and just had a regular Nokia brick, or a Razer.

Some thought they were just palm pilots with calling ability, for nerds.

There were plenty of MP3 players too (often superior to the iPod) but they were clunky, in the case of my Creative Nomad it looked like a CD player!

What the iPod touch and iPhone did, and you're correct, is make something both usable by the average non techie person with their UI, and also a status symbol that cost just enough like a pair of Nike's to make it desirable versus being a geeks toy. So yes, the UI like you said made a big impression, but it was just a row of apps for things like calculators made by Apple the capacitive screen if anything was more important at the time. Once it was mass market enough, once enough people had the device it caused a cascade of devs to jump on the app store and the rest is history.

My point is, someone has to make the VR headset equivalent of the original iPhone, to be a desirable object the rich kids in the schools all get first, a status symbol, and then the Metaverse/VR Store etc will come alive with devs and people buying and using those apps and then we will see the real creativity and living breathing ecosystem it can become.

Meta seem to be trying to brute force the marketplace before they can get the device in enough homes or get it desirable enough, in the chicken and the egg debate they have firmly picked the egg to focus on.

I don't think you can argue today's VR headsets are N95s and or blackberries, for tech enthusiasts or business use only. People are looking at them like wow so expensive and make you look like a geek. When it flips it will be wow look, so expensive, only geeks don't have the Apple iSet whatever it will be called.

The VR headset you see your parents using, the one you see kids using at school while other kids stand around hoping to have a go, that's the one that's going to kick off the VR revolution.

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