Yo,
I hope everyone had a good week breathing in all the smoke from the Canadian wildfires.
A lot happened this week, but I couldn’t find anything write worthy about the aliens, wildfires, or golf merger, so I picked something topical with a cool story at the end.
Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From
Starting with Steve Jobs, Apple has always hyped up their product launches. They’re pretty much like a party for nerds, and generate a lot of publicity and free marketing.
Whether by design or not, this year’s was even more anticipated because it marked the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro, their first VR product.
Many people have wondered what took them so long since Meta acquired Oculus all the way back in 2014, but Apple’s answer, as it always is, is that they’re committed to delivering superior, gold standard products.
We’ll see whether Apple can successfully break into the VR market starting from 0, but for now it may be worth highlighting some of the differences between the Vision Pro and the industry leading Oculus.
A lot happened this week, but I couldn’t find anything write worthy about the aliens, wildfires, or golf merger, so I picked something topical with a cool story at the end.
Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree Meta
Starting with Steve Jobs, Apple has always hyped up their product launches. They’re pretty much like a party for nerds, and generate a lot of publicity and free marketing.
Whether by design or not, this year’s was even more anticipated because it marked the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro, their first VR product.
Many people have wondered what took them so long since Meta acquired Oculus all the way back in 2014, but Apple’s answer, as it always is, is that they’re committed to delivering superior, gold standard products.
We’ll see whether Apple can successfully break into the VR market starting from 0, but for now it may be worth highlighting some of the differences between the Vision Pro and the industry leading Oculus.
Differences from,matt
- Price: Apple is taking the “luxury/high quality” road by charging $3,499, whereas you can get Meta’s Oculus for $300. It will be interesting to see whether consumers are willing to pay that kind of price.
- Controllers: Unlike the Oculus, the Vision Pro doesn’t use any handheld controllers. Instead, it relies on finger movement, eye movement, and voice. In my head the less hardware the better, I’d rather have free hands.
- Entertainment vs. Utility: The most common use case for the Oculus is gaming. Owners love playing games on the device over any other use cases. Apple came out and emphasized the utility of the Vision Pro, which I think will give them a leg up. They highlighted how it will revolutionize work, communication, and entertainment, which in the long run may lead to more usage.
- Integration: We all know the grip that iPhones have on the U.S. People may prefer to have something that can be entirely connected to their phones, compared to Meta who doesn’t have a phone or Google with the few people who have a Pixel.
Some More Thoughts
Couldn’t really think of a way to organize them, so here are a few more random facts and analysis.
While Oculus’s have a majority market share, more than half of them aren’t being used 6 months after their purchased. I’m sure a lot of this is due to the lack of utility. If the most common use case for your device is gaming, then people are likely to burn out after the newness wears off. It’s like getting a Wii; the first few months you’re obsessed, but then after a while you don’t play it as much. Apple has likely noticed this and chosen to focus on utility and integration to increase usage.
One thing I did find weird about the Vision Pro was the transparency of the headset.
Privacy has become a huge concern in the past decade. People hate it when others look at their phone or when the significant other says “hey, can I see your phone”. Special screen covers have been invented, passcodes have become more complex, and people have become more paranoid.
So, to have a transparent screen where someone could be standing there reading your information without you even knowing was a little surprising.
But here’s the thing, Meta has sold over 20 million headsets to date, so if Apple only sells 1 million of the Vision Pros they’ll still rake in $3.5 billion.
And if you think people on OnlyFans make money now, just wait until they start making content for this thing.
Canyoneers
Now VR is cool and all, but I like to think that real life is a lot cooler, especially if you do cool things. One of the coolest things I’ve done in my life was rafting through Arizona’s famous crack with the Canyoneers. They’ve been doing these trips since 1938, back before VR even existed. Their guides are world class and make every moment fun. If you want to go, hit me up by responding to this email and I’ll give you a special referral code.
The Evolution of VR
Of course, we wouldn’t be talking about any of this without the man who started it all: Palmer Luckey.
Luckey grew up in California, was homeschooled by his mother, attended community college before attending and dropping out of California State University. An insanely smart guy, school just wasn’t for him.
As a kid he liked to experiment with railguns, Tesla coils, and lasers before eventually focusing on VR after he dropped out of college.
He made over 50 headsets, before finally arriving on the version people now know as Oculus, and funded this passion buy fixing and reselling broken iPhones on Ebay.
Eventually he used a Kickstarter campaign to start fulfilling customer orders, officially registered Oculus as a business, and in 2014 sold to Facebook for $2 billion.… when he was only 22.
Ever since then it has been a foundational piece of Facebook’s business and one of the main reasons for changing their name to Meta and going all in on the metaverse.
Luckey is commonly described as the “face of virtual reality”, but in 2017 started Anduril with the hopes of commercializing American defense systems. Just like what SpaceX has done to the space industry.
Just a pretty cool guy that many people have never heard of.
Let’s have ourselves a weekend!
from, matt
