Apple should launch the oft-rumored and highly-anticipated Apple AR Glasses in “Apple Watch-style” by getting an “80% of the way there” product out into the market and into the hands of users and, importantly, developers, Jeremy Horwitz writes for VentureBeat:
Apple Watch served several important purposes for both Apple and its customers. First, it catalyzed the company to reimagine itself in the post-Steve Jobs era, bringing on experts from the fashion and luxury retail worlds to help market and sell the new devices. Second, it gave developers a tangible early sense of what a “smart watch” would and wouldn’t be useful for. And third, for better or worse, it let Apple gauge user reactions so it could safely choose the “horsepower over battery life” path it would follow in every future model…
Five years after releasing its first Watch, Apple is seemingly on the cusp of launching its next wearable — augmented reality glasses — and a major question is how long the company will keep working on the initial model before releasing it to the public… I’m actually hoping that Apple’s AR glasses follow a similar release schedule [as Apple Watch]. That’s primarily because I think third-party developers really need the time to publicly test AR apps using wearable rather than handheld hardware, and even early adopters will need some time to get used to AR wearables…
Just like the original Apple Watch, there should be no special pricing or limits on who can buy the glasses on day one.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple Watch certainly found its way – we, the users, were the Apple Watch alpha and beta testers, collectively standing in for Steve Jobs, doing much of what the singular genius would have done before release by brute force and sheer numbers after release. It took four generations of Apple Watch, but we’re here now and we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything! The same goes for Apple Glasses!
The Apple Glasses will be the key as holding up slabs of glass as “windows” is suboptimal. When we’re running in a race, for example, we don’t want to have to hold an iPhone or even glance at an Apple Watch, but with a pair of Apple Glasses constantly overlaying time, pace, splits, etc. it’ll be ideal! — MacDailyNews, September 6, 2019
Augmented Reality is going to change everything. — MacDailyNews, July 21, 2017
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll look back at holding up slabs of metal and glass to access AR as unbelievably quaint. — MacDailyNews, July 28, 2017
The impact of augmented reality cannot be overstated. It will be a paradigm shift larger than the iPhone and the half-assed clones it begat. — MacDailyNews, August 4, 2017
Sorry, this is one product that will never really fly… a waste of time and money… just my IMHO..
How can you say that when you don’t know what it looks like, what it will do, what the specs are, and how much it costs?
Because Macinfo is a Macmofo, that’s why. He engages mouth and typing fingers before brain has had a chance to crank up the engine, sadly
I’m just wondering how the AR glasses are worn with prescription glasses.
On one’s face
You’d think prescription glass wearers would be the most receptive market, since they already wear glasses; just like watch wearers were the most likely to buy AppleWatch since you didn’t have to convince them to wear a watch. So, presumably, they accommodate prescription glass lenses.
Maybe I’m expecting something different, but I’ll guess they’re bound to be the product with the greatest privacy/security challenge of all. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple mitigates the leaks on the user’s side and the creepiness as they enter other’s private spaces.
Many are concerned about the static “iSight” cams on their cpu, well now they’ll be roaming….
As Google showed us already, the marketing challenge of making this acceptably edgy and cool, rather than creepy and dorky, is far harder than any technical challenge. And unlike half-baked technical challenges (that are ready for crowdsourced improvement), if the marketing theories are half baked, the product is likely to fall on its ass and set the category back years again. There’s no need for Apple to rush into this before they are ready for all aspects of launch. As long as they have products ready to launch if some competitor takes a swing first and proves it can be cool, it’s not like anyone’s going to own the whole segment just by beating Apple to market by a few months or a year.
My gen 1 Apple Watch is still running fine after nearly half a decade, some apps lag and Siri doesn’t seem to hear me anymore but I’ve gotten my money’s worth. Curious to see how the glasses will turn out, it’ll be hard to overcome the “glasshole” effect Google blessed us with. Anything on your face is a far bigger ask than a watch or Airpods. Hopefully it’s a unit that attaches to your own glasses or sunglasses, I don’t want to get a new prescription or remove my glasses to use it, otherwise that’s too much sameness on people’s faces that doesn’t fly like Airpods do.
For me the AppleWatch had immediate uses as a fitness tracker and now sleep and health monitor. It is very hard for me to see what I would use AR glasses for.
However, as we all know Apple is incredibly good at create solutions we did not even realize there are problem for. So I will take an open mind and see what they have offer.
With the planned iGlasses, Apple will have covered all the senses except the nose, so I am waiting to be delighted by new smells and odors delivered by the iNosePod. It would be a pleasantly odiferous experience. Only Apple can prevent stench from entering via such a device category.
“Five years after releasing its first Watch, Apple is seemingly on the cusp of launching its next wearable…”
Nonsense! The second wearable are airPods !!!
Apple-Watch Style
As in “Watch the glasshole!”