It's gonna be huge when someone nails it. Huge for work. Huge for home. The next Smartphone revolution; Smartphones took the Internet from a place you physically go (a desktop computer, or a laptop that's not terribly portable and that nobody's gonna carry all the time) to something that could follow you around. It put the Internet everywhere—not like water on tap, but like air.
AR glasses are going to mean the Internet's not just available everywhere, but is available on the real world, all the time, which is a pretty big distinction, about as big as the smartphone revolution.
A bunch of stuff that's kinda sucked will suddenly be great. AR tools. AR games. QR codes. Questions we used to have to ask our phones will simply be answered, automatically ("what's this song I'm hearing?", "who's that person?"). Voice assistants will become far more useful (get used to hearing a lot more people in public talking to their assistant—it'll be weird or seem dickish and annoying at first, but then, so did texting in public or talking on the phone in public, until, in a very short span, they didn't anymore)
Of course, we'll see if Apple's the one who finally cracks it. Someone's going to, I'm pretty sure, and I think all the major tech companies agree—they've all been pouring money into AR R&D for years and years, even though it's been clear the whole time that, on a phone or table or gaming device (Nintendo DS) it's got terrible UX, and there's no fixing that without new hardware. They must all believe wearables are going to be A Thing before too long.
I'm not seeing a lot of people talking on the phone outside.
Texting in public was never an issue. Not sure what you mean here.
Questions like what song is running are mundane.
The advantages of qr code are still very limited. Restaurant menu? Sure. What else? Perhaps wifi code? Okay.
But what else really? Driving perhaps I can see that. Instead of adding are in the car I might want to wear an AR car version but what then?
I don't believe people will be willing to elwear any type of glasses if they don't have to every day. If you then don't have it every day it will not become a sane default.
I agree with everything you wrote, but I don't think Apple will be releasing an AR headset within 3 years. A VR headset? Sure, but AR is much more challenging.
According to various reports, Apple views this as the successor to the smart phone. Unlike everyone else, they are focusing more on everything other than games.
This also explains why Meta is still committed to plow billions into XR to secure their own viable hardware platform.
Ya, you nailed it. If AR is possible to build someone will build it and if they do it will (in due time) completely supersede the iPhone and destroy Apple's revenue. They literally cannot afford _not_ to compete in this market. Facebook's aggressive move here makes sense considering all of the scar tissue they have from not controlling their own destiny on mobile.
yamtaddle|3 years ago
AR glasses are going to mean the Internet's not just available everywhere, but is available on the real world, all the time, which is a pretty big distinction, about as big as the smartphone revolution.
A bunch of stuff that's kinda sucked will suddenly be great. AR tools. AR games. QR codes. Questions we used to have to ask our phones will simply be answered, automatically ("what's this song I'm hearing?", "who's that person?"). Voice assistants will become far more useful (get used to hearing a lot more people in public talking to their assistant—it'll be weird or seem dickish and annoying at first, but then, so did texting in public or talking on the phone in public, until, in a very short span, they didn't anymore)
Of course, we'll see if Apple's the one who finally cracks it. Someone's going to, I'm pretty sure, and I think all the major tech companies agree—they've all been pouring money into AR R&D for years and years, even though it's been clear the whole time that, on a phone or table or gaming device (Nintendo DS) it's got terrible UX, and there's no fixing that without new hardware. They must all believe wearables are going to be A Thing before too long.
Femtiono|3 years ago
Texting in public was never an issue. Not sure what you mean here.
Questions like what song is running are mundane.
The advantages of qr code are still very limited. Restaurant menu? Sure. What else? Perhaps wifi code? Okay.
But what else really? Driving perhaps I can see that. Instead of adding are in the car I might want to wear an AR car version but what then?
I don't believe people will be willing to elwear any type of glasses if they don't have to every day. If you then don't have it every day it will not become a sane default.
greedo|3 years ago
chaostheory|3 years ago
This also explains why Meta is still committed to plow billions into XR to secure their own viable hardware platform.
sawert|3 years ago