As much as I'm fine with spending much of my life within Apple's "little" garden, when I saw the presentation of that AR thing, all I really thought was a slightly less PG-13 version of "I'm getting too old for this…"
I'm sure they'll sell millions of these over the years, but to me it looks like a really nifty solution in search of an actual problem.
In the 20-odd years of Apple product launches that I've followed, this is the first time that I actually thought to myself: Nope, I can't think of a single situation or application where I'd rather use that thing than my phone, my Mac mini, my MacBook Pro, my TV, or my Schiit audio gear. I can't think of a single one of that thing's "killer applications" that would improve my life in even just the slightest way over what I already own or use.
I've also got to wonder if anyone in Cupertino actually watched that keynote in its entirety before they aired it. Because if even just one person had watched the thing in full, they may have noticed that it doesn't really look all that great to present their new face-hugger product a mere half hour or so after they talked at length about the new mental health tracking features in the Health app. Putting that much emphasis on them caring for their customers' mental health and then introducing a new product line that not just incentivizes but
requires! you putting a physical, visual, and psychological barrier between you and the people you share a space with? A product that manages not only to make it feel like you're in a Zoom meeting with people that are in the same room with you, but that's also replacing your own eyes with a simulation for them to look at? And don't get me started on that uncanny valley cluster**** that is the visual avatar. If that's not the textbook definition of confirmation bias, I don't know what is…
If this thing (and its smaller/cheaper brethren that are undoubtedly in the pipeline) ends up with an adoption rate similar to the Watch, I'll just get me a cabin in the woods somewhere and be done.
Yeah…