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Originally Posted by bluejays
I can't say this without coming across as an Apple fanboy (only ever owned the phone - good; watch - mediocre), but I think anything has generally put money into through a release in the past 20 or so years, they stick with. Pretty much by announcing it in this manner they're putting their money on it being huge. Google seems to put out trials of stuff but doesn't back it up with keeping with it or supporting it very long. So Apple should own this one for awhile. I do wonder about Microsoft coming into play with some version though. And of course Samsung who steals from the people they're manufacturing for.
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Microsoft does have something in the hopper, but IMO it's too unfocused at this point. I think it is in the $3500-5000+ range. They'd need a catalyst on the market to help them restructure their vast ideas and IP into something more consumer friendly/demanded package. IIRC over a decade ago, they had this desktop surface idea that combined holographic, projection and physical interaction of objects beyond pens. I think they might have too many ideas of cool niche things to do, but not enough concepts that could be embraced at a consumer or business level.
I think Apple, Microsoft and Google were the only ones to put forth a concept that isn't related solely to media consumption (ie: Oculus and PSVR). Not to say VR and XR is a gimmick, but it's IMO a very limited market at this point in time due to a variety of reasons beyond hardware and price. Yet VR media consumption or XR media consumption is the big current money maker here, and not AR. The entire industry has to jump together, but someone has to jump first and most key players are wary of jumping too early. This is in the same way as the original, "We have laptops, what are tablets going to do that I can't do on a laptop." vs "Tablets are convenient, what can't they do that I need a laptop specifically to do." I have disdain for the over usage of comments like, "Revolutionizes the industry." but IMO that's what all the new players (including Apple) must do to make this tech viable and successful.
Apple started this revolution via the iPad. It was originally ridiculed, not any more. Microsoft is still doing their own thing in this category (Surface). Samsung likely sits back and learns from the other guys mistakes and Google likely decides they don't care, until they suddenly decide otherwise, and then they suddenly aim to be a top 2 player in that space. IIRC, they did similar things with the Apple watch (ie: too expensive for regular watch and activity tracker!).
I've often said in some discussions that IMO Apple is not much of an inventor. They're just really damn good at marketing and innovating existing tech for a demand people didn't realize they had. I'm usually a late adopter for Apple products, and each time I said a concept was kinda dumb, I was proven wrong. So this time, I'm intrigued to see how they pull this one off.