Apple transforms product categories from time to time, and the rest of the time improvements are incremental (though usually good). In the last 5 years or so Apple Silicon has transformed expectations, not just for Apple products but for the whole industry, starting with the M1 MacBook Air, then with the M1 MacBook Pro, and more recently with the M4 Mac mini.

(Meanwhile Mac Studio refactored Apple's desktop lineup, perhaps echoing the G4 Cube, and the iPad Pro M4 was a milestone product that leapfrogged Mac laptop hardware by including an OLED display and next-gen SoC. We may see something similar with an iPad Pro M5.)

I think AirTags also transformed their category. Vision Pro was a new product line for Apple but has not been a success so far.

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adastra22 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Vision Pro's only problem is the price. At $1k I think we would see a lot more adoption. I say this as a former skeptic and who gets VR sickness from other AR/VR devices, and hates the idea of strapping a device to my face and being isolated from my surroundings.

I got an AVP for work (long story), and was blown away. No VR sickness. I can work from anywhere with my laptop while enjoying a massive, wrap-around high resolution (virtual) display. I can relive vacation photos in full 3D. I can watch For All Mankind projected on a drive-in movie theatre screen in a lunar crater, while laying in my bed.

I think I'd have to go back to the original iPhone to think of a product that is so innovative and visionary that you just KNOW from first use that it will completely transform the way we interact with computers.

But at $3,500? Nobody can afford that, and only a small subset of the 1% would even consider buying one.

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kshacker 11 hours ago | parent [-]

From what I have heard, it weighs on you. Maybe you can tolerate for an hour, and maybe you can do more than me, but I think the weight is the second parameter which puts off people.

Reduce weight by 1/3 and same thing for the price, and I will likely buy it.

	▲	adastra22 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Fair. Getting a correctly sized light shield helps a lot as it balances the weight over your whole face. Also helpful is having the strap ride a lot higher on the back than you would think is right -- it always feels way too high, but is held in place better when I do this, and feels lighter (as some of the strain is taken off the face). Or using the alternative over-head strap. This is one case where I think Apple went too far with form over function. There are much better strap designs, but they just aren't aesthetically pleasing I guess? Finally, I generally use it laying down in bed or on a couch, which makes the weight less of an issue. I agree in principle that a lighter device would be vastly better. I don't know how they will get there without drastic improvements in the underlying technology though.