aapple fan I can’t wait for February 2nd. That’s when the tech giant’s latest gadget, the new Augmented Reality (AR) A headset called Vision Pro will be released. Some early reviewers complained that it gave them headaches and that the battery life was only two hours long. Many potential buyers will be put off by the $3,499 price tag. Still, perhaps 200,000 units have been pre-ordered, about 40% of what Apple expected to sell this year. Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, describes trying Vision Pro as a “aha moment.” “You only get a few things like that in your lifetime,” he added.
True or not, the Vision Pro is part of a trend. In September, engineers were excited about new smart glasses made by Facebook’s parent company Meta and eyewear brand Ray-Ban. The glasses are voice-controlled and can play music, send texts, and capture everything you see. Two months later, Humane, a startup founded by former Apple executives, launched Pin, a brooch that users can interact with through speech and gestures. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, the R1, a voice-controlled device half the size of a smartphone, captivated attendees. Its manufacturer, a startup called Rabbit, has sold nearly 100,000 units.
What all these devices have in common is the elimination of the screen, keyboard, and mouse. Thanks to “generative” artificial intelligence (A.I.), computers are getting better at hearing, reading, seeing, and understanding things. This means you can control your hardware with voice, gestures, or images rather than touch. A.I. In this way, new “form factors” are possible. Just as the iPhone looked different than older cell phones, engineers want gadgets in new shapes and sizes.
Silicon Valley elites are rooting for this potential change.they believe A.I. It has the potential to replace smartphones as devices everyone wants, creating a new market for consumer hardware.Sam Altman, boss of Open CorporationA.I.the startup behind ChatGPTThe company is reportedly in talks with Jony Ive, Apple’s former head of design, to form a company that will create gadgets for the following purposes: A.I.. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, A.I.– An ambitious tech titan recently said, “If you get new interfaces, new hardware becomes possible.”
One of the reasons we get excited about new gadgets is that old ones just don’t seem interesting. Global smartphone sales last year totaled 1.2 billion, down 3% year-on-year and the lowest level in a decade. IDCa research company. computers worsened further, dropping by 15% to 242 million units in 2023. Consumers who are strapped for cash are choosing cheaper alternatives, such as second-hand devices, or keeping their current devices for an extended period of time.
The hope is that you might be persuaded to buy an entirely new gadget because it offers something your old gadget doesn’t. A.I. For example, it can make using your device more seamless and personal. Users can command or gesture to r1 to hail a ride, order food, or play music without switching apps. It also learns from the user’s previous actions. In the past, people have had to adapt to software, says Vinod Khosla, a veteran venture capitalist and early supporter of Rabbit. In r1, ” A.I. Adapt to you. ”
Developing and manufacturing new gadgets is also not that difficult. Venture Capitalist Lior Susan of Eclipse (V.C.) says that ten years ago, building high-tech widgets required hundreds of staff. Now he can do the same thing with about 10 people. Every step of the manufacturing process has been made easier. Initial versions can be mocked up in design software. Rather than purchasing industrial machinery to create parts for your prototype, you can order as few as three.D-Printing companies like Shapeways. Sensors, batteries, and chips can be purchased commercially. Contract manufacturing companies such as Foxconn are no longer insistent on working only with large customers like Apple. Some companies offer specialized services for hardware startups.
The resulting new crop A.I.– Devices with power supplies fall into two broad categories. The first is a virtual reality or augmented reality headset (VR and AR). So far, it is the most popular among game lovers.Sale of VR George Ziziashvili of research firm Omdia estimates that headset sales reached around 10 million units in 2020 after the release of Meta’s Quest 2. He believes Vision Pro will breathe new life into the industry by: VR It’s also appealing to non-gamers. Promotional videos depict people using Vision Pro to watch movies, work, and talk with friends.
The second category consists of more complex gizmos.Approximately 540 million “wearables” worth $68 billion were shipped last year, according to IDC.Many have already adopted A.I. in any kind of way. Also includes earphones (accounting for 63% of sales), Smartwatches (another 30%), wristbands like fitness tracker Whoop, and smart glasses like Meta’s Ray-Ban (together they make up most of the rest).humane pin and A.I. Pendant created by two startups MyTab A.I. and rewind A.I.is newly added to this group.
All of these devices are nifty. Whether they’re nifty enough to displace smartphones and become the next big platform is another question. For that to happen, consumers have to accept them. To do that, it first has to look good, which failed early efforts like the boring Google Glass. The r1’s sophisticated retro feel is the result of a collaboration between Swedish design firm Teenage Engineering and Rabbit. Ahead of its launch, Humane’s Pin appeared on the Paris catwalk at an event hosted by French fashion house Coperni. Meta’s glasses were a hit, in part because Ray-Ban knows what makes shades stylish.
Second, new gadgets need to be useful in different ways than old gadgets.Many hardware manufacturers are adding A.I. to your existing device. On January 31st, Samsung A.I. A smartphone that can perform neat tricks, such as summarizing text message threads. Microsoft’s next generation of laptops and tablets will reportedly include professionals A.I. a new keyboard button to call the chip and “co-pilot”; A.I. Chatbot. Smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Nest and earphones such as Apple’s AirPods are being revamped. A.I. Features. These include chatbots and the ability to use AirPods to pass through desired sounds and reduce volume when the wearer is speaking.
To break through, A.I. Will the hardware make your life much easier (for example, booking your entire trip, including flight, car, and hotel, with one command) or will it be much more amazing (creating Mr. Cook’s “aha” moment)? It must be one of the following. Users also expect to perform multiple functions. That means there are a lot of apps.Meta’s latest work VR The headset Quest 3 offers around 500. The Vision Pro already boasts around 350 dedicated apps and can run most iPhone versions of the roughly 2 million apps available on the App Store. Humane’s Pin also doubles as a phone and claims to do away with apps and offer a variety of features instead.A.I.“-powered services” provided by providers such as OpenA.I. and Google. Rabbit’s r1 piggybacks on the existing app world on smartphones, at least for the time being.
Third, even though manufacturing has become easier, managing the supply chain remains the most difficult part of running a hardware business, notes Sequoia’s Sean McGuire. V.C. Hard. Suppliers may take calls from smaller companies, but some may be reluctant to offer good prices on small orders from unproven new entrants.
Nothing available A.I. The device overcomes all three challenges. Beautiful-looking things like r1, Pin, and Meta’s Ray-Bans seem like peripherals closer to his AirPods than his iPhone. Stand-alone useful ones like the Vision Pro and Quest are dumber and far more clunky than Google Glass. Additionally, developing apps for Apple’s headsets is expensive, so some video game studios and developers such as Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube (which compete with Apple’s own video and music streaming services) I’m hesitant. Production problems plague almost everyone. Rabbit founder Jesse Lyu says his product became an overnight sensation, giving him a little more bargaining power with suppliers. Even supply chain master Apple reportedly had to scale back its original plan to ship 1 million Vision Pros this year due to the complex manufacturing involved.
Even if some gadget makers clear all three hurdles, they may stumble over the next one. A.I. progress. Apple took seven years to develop Vision Pro. A.I. time. Even Rabbit’s next-generation devices, which Khosla says are expected to be ready as early as this summer, could be outdated by the time they reach users.Today’s shot A.I. Gadgets may one day supplant smartphones. Perhaps the optimal form factor has not yet taken shape. ■