What can Apple’s VR headset do to justify its $3,000 price tag?

Father thousand USD. Not three hundred dollars. Not even a thousand dollars. Father thousand USD. That’s a lot of money to spend on something that will almost certainly give you headaches, make you feel like you’re going to bed, and make you look like an idiot.

Also: Every Apple product we look forward to at WWDC 2023

All signs are Apple will announce its legendary AR/VR headset on Monday at WWDC and that the product will cost $3,000. By contrast, Meta’s soon-to-be-announced third-generation headset, mission 3likely to cost less than $500.

Competitive variables

Five hundred versus three thousand? If Apple is going to introduce something at that price point, it’s better to have more than just something to match it.

Also: The best VR headset for gaming, metaverse and more

AR/VR . Headset there are only a few vectors for competitive advantage. Consider those:

Price: Apple has never really competed on price. It always promotes feel, ecosystem integration, quality, exclusivity and design. With an expected starting price of $3,000, Apple isn’t playing the price game.

sad: Most AR/VR glasses have a form factor that’s a lot closer to diving goggles than Ray Bans. The closer Apple gets to making a headset that’s more like a pair of glasses than a nightmare on your forehead, the better Apple’s chances of success.

Weight: In addition to looking stupid, the headset glasses are heavy. They can cause neck and back irritation if used for a long time.

Appease: If you’re going to tie a two-pound brick to your face, you need something to hold it in place. Over time, some AR/VR vendors have gotten better at increasing comfort, but keeping something so big, bulky, and heavy often means sacrificing comfort. in exchange for stiffness and structure. Apple needs to find a hot spot here.

Eye sensation: Here, we are talking about adapting devices to compensate for pupil distance, as well as how to deal with people who need a prescription to see. To what extent will these cause eye strain?

Connect: What powers the headphones? Does it connect to a computer or does it have a small smartphone processor inside? Rumor has it that Apple’s device will have an Apple Silicon M3 processor inside, but use some sort of strap for power. Because it’s not annoying or annoying.

run time: This is a direct consequence of connectivity as runtime is a function of the performance and size of the battery or physical connection to the wall power. In any case, it’s important how long you can use your headphones before it gets dark. Apple will do relatively well here because of their deep experience with battery technology.

Maybe Apple will hit all six non-price factors by being willing to charge enough for it to work. If that’s the case, a major set of objections would be overcome.

Also: 4 best AR glasses: Pro-grade AR and XR headsets

But rumor mills don’t call Apple devices “glasses”. They still call it headphones. So while Apple can manage to make the device hate-free, it’s unlikely the company will remove it from the park.

In case of used

I’m wearing an augmented reality headset right now. I’ve been wearing it since I was a teenager. My setup only has one app, vision correction, but it’s been a great app for me. To be clear, I’m talking about my glasses. I use them to watch TV, drive, use the computer and sometimes when I work in the store.

While I recently only paid about 20 dollars for my eyeglassesI, like Jason Perlow, back in the day spent over $700 on a special purpose pair. Unfortunately, the Superfocus lens that Jason and I both ended up buying broke down and the company stopped working. But while they worked, they helped a lot.

Also: Meta Quest 3: Price, features and when you can buy a new VR headset

Being able to see and work on my many different computers was a huge productivity issue for me a decade ago, so it’s worth the extra money to be able to get things done and reduce eye strain. price. My setup and my eyes have changed over time and I can now use the same pair of corrective lenses for both distance and computer work.

My point is: If there is a killer app, people will pay a higher price. I’ve switched to using a Mac as my primary operating system because Final Cut Pro only works on Macs. Using Final Cut saves me a day per week compared to using Premiere Pro — a huge cognitive productivity benefit (but not really accurate) added the cost of the Mac’s worth.

Also: The best webcam you can buy

So what’s the use case for Apple’s new headphones? There are some obvious examples of verticals, like education, remote field support, real estate sales, and medicine. But while there has been significant uptake in the business world for Macs and iPhones over the past decade, Apple remains a large market player.

Are Apple headphones widely used in the market?

If this is still a pandemic period, you can say that video conferencing is that killer app. The ability to “be there” and “face” people face-to-face in meetings could make the investment in Apple’s headphones well worth it. But we are no longer locked out and most companies are back to doing business at the office.

Gaming, assuming you’re not vomiting, would certainly be awesome in any modern VR headset. Apple hosts a lot of games on iOS, so it’s likely that gaming could be a win for headphones. But while people can spend $500 on a gaming headset, they won’t drop to $3k. Undoubtedly, gaming will become popular on VR, but only if the price point and hardware becomes practical for the purpose.

Also: Best PC gaming headset

A compelling use case is being demonstrated by a company named sight, produced a limited release product called Spacetop. This is a laptop without a screen. Instead, you use AR glasses to see what appears to be the widescreen. The power of this, both in terms of portability and privacy, is compelling. Interestingly, the glasses the company uses are not terrible. They seem quite light and comfortable, even when they are strapped to the computer. AR glasses And laptop is $2,000.

Also: The best laptop you can buy

Outside of these apps, there doesn’t seem to be a widely used market for Apple headphones. Which brings me back to my original question…

What would justify paying $3,000 for Apple headphones?

ZDNET Editor-in-Chief Jason Hiner says this: “We can be sure of one thing: If Apple releases a headset, they think they have a groundbreaking new product.”

I agree. Apple is never satisfied with launching mediocre, over-the-top products. There is always some special sauce in its product definition. But the more I think about it, the more I suspect that Apple won’t launch headphones — at least not for the consumer market.

Three thousand dollars, without killer apps — or even with some killer apps that Apple hasn’t revealed yet — won’t appeal to the mass market. Plus, many of us won’t want to put a large object in our eyes for any length of time.

Also: Fitness won’t sell me Apple’s rumored Reality Pro headset

Here’s what’s more likely: Apple is rolling out a development kit for app developers and enterprise customers with related vertical apps. This is not unprecedented. At WWDC 2020, Apple Launches Apple Silicon Developer Transformation Kitis a modified Mac mini running the first version of the new M1 processor.

WWDC is the perfect time to showcase Reality Pro’s technology (something we expect Apple to name the headset). This is the perfect time to recruit developers to explore what they can do with it. This is also an ideal time for those developers to get to work. This makes complete sense, and any developer with an app that can take advantage of the AR and VR potential of the Apple headset is sure to jump at the chance to test it out.

I no longer develop iOS apps, so I really have no reason to buy headphones now. But once the final product is released, when we know how it works for users with glasses, and when it’s under $1,500, then I’ll seriously consider it.

Of course, all of the above is just conjecture. We’ll know more on Monday. Do you think my prognosis is above target? If not, what are your predictions? Let me know in the comments below.

You can follow my daily project updates on social media. Remember to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtzon Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtzon Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtzand on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.