3500 is way too much when trying to introduce a new platform. I guess that's the cost of the display (two apple watches) and the chips (a Macbook and a half). But still.
It's about 120x the resolution of an Apple Watch. The displays themselves -- by far the most critical, make or break element of such a device -- are multiple generations beyond anything else.
Honestly perplexed why this has seen multiple downvotes. The device features 23 million pixels, or 3x 4K screens. That's 3X the Sony VR2. Over 2X the Vive Pro 2. And of course it's 120x the resolution of an Apple Watch Series 7. The angular resolution approaches the limits of the human eye.
I agree that it's way more expensive than I expected, but calling the displays "two apple watches" is really understating how much resolution you're getting. By like two orders of magnitude.
The price is not low, but note the "Pro" in the name. I think that the first two versions will be high-end, and in the third generation they will release a Pro and non-Pro variant.
It took until the third-gen iPhone 3G for that product to really hit its stride. Took a few revs for the iWatch as well (IIRC).
The same criticism was made towards the trashcan, and it sure didn't revolutionize the high end computing world.
I also don't see Apple taking the world by storm with this device, but it probably could fit into the same niche as the AirPod Max, a device that provides what a specific audience wants and won't care that much about what it costs. Which is arguably a sizeable amount of people when it comes to the Apple ecosystem, allowing niche products to survive.
~100 bucks a month financed over 3 years. IMO the question is "can most people wear this for hours on end for both work and play" If that is actually yes (skeptical) I'm probably a buyer.
Adjusted for inflation it's actually cheaper than most early computers (Apple II ~6500 to start at launch).
The price can always go down, but it is hard to go up. The high price and the next year date means they don't want to sell a whole lot of it. They probably need more time to improve it.
If I had to bet between Meta and Apple getting it right first, I'd probably bet on Meta now, with apple playing catchup as they usually do, and really well. But so far, if Metaverse was a mistake, this is an even larger mistake.
If these end up being closed systems, Apple will likely win the race. They'll just sell it better and they'll integrate it way better with all their existing hardware. The network effect will ensure that this is pretty much what people end up buying.
They'll probably push payment plans for this, but it might take some enticement. We are getting used to higher sticker prices anyway because of inflation.
