Big Tech's Failed Attempt To Replace Smartphones

We use smartphones a lot. Too much some may even argue. Over the past decade or so they’ve become more or less a necessity in society.

But they necessarily…need to be, right?

As time goes on, people have become content with older phones. No need to upgrade every year, and in response big tech had a plan.

Replace the smartphone with VR headsets, and AR headset. And smart glasses.

To you this might seem bizarre and nonsensical, but to somebody, somewhere, it all made sense.

Today I want to take a look at how I feel this experiment has failed, and explore why headsets will never replace the smartphone.

[JUPAC]

if i could put on my VR headset, and just go straight to my desktop. no nonsense, no OCULUS UI, no silicon valley avatar nonsense, no 'friends list'. leave me alone. straight to my desktop. just be a TOOL. im so tired of all this other stuff and i think others are too. perhaps.

[SharpEdgeSoda]

The smart phone took off because it had a competent internet browser. It's that simple.

"The internet in my pocket" sold the smart phone. Not the apps, not the tech, not the touch screens, not anything else, that's all bonus features.

We already have the internet in our pocket. What does VR do?

[Wrappedinhair]

There was a place in my town, back in 18, that tried to make a VR arcade, charging 30$ for 20 minutes.
Anybody that had fun, bought a headset for themselves. Anybody with motion sickness never came back.
They closed after 4 months.

[matthewmspace]

As someone who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, I think the reason why tech execs keep wanting to replace the smartphone is because they're salty that they weren't working at Apple and Google 15 years ago with a generous amount of stock options. Most executives of startups these days were either at the bottom of the totem pole then (I.E. interns) or were working at startups that failed miserably, resulting in their stock options being worth $0.

[ampersand]

Once I saw that they wanted to utilize VR to join Microsoft Teams calls, I wanted it to fail like nothing else has failed in the history of humankind.

[PostingCringeOnMain]

ok but hear me out, wouldn't the world be hugely improved if smartphones DID cause you physical pain after more than 30 minutes of sustained use?

[remyllebeau]

Not only are they bulky and make you look funny, what are they really replacing? How is the average consumer going to stop buying a desktop and buy VR goggles instead? They barely have the technology to transcribe speech into text to replace our keyboards, and not without being connected with the internet.

[vevfd]

I'm in the "bought a Occulus, used it a few times and put it on the shelf" club. It's real fun, but I can't use it more than 20 minutes until I get a migraine.

[sebasmusician]

How is "add virtual things to your home" a selling point? A virtual note on my fridge? Why? Add a cool new virtual painting? Yeah the painting is gone as soon as I take the headset off... Ppl like real things

[TheWhiteDragon]

There's a quote from a tech dude I can't name off the top of my head that goes, "From the moment the smartphone debuted, I knew it would be the next big thing in the industry. It's shaped to be conveniently carried in your pocket and fits perfectly in your hand, you know...like a box of cigarettes."
Until VR/AR is as convenient as putting on a pair of glasses, it fundamentally does not have the same draw as a smartphone, and the only thing VR is good for is a dedicated gooner

[olivermahon]

Tech companies seem to forget that to make a long term product successful it has to offer a solution to a problem that is better or at least comparable to the alternative

[mmyk]

"Who wants to be stuck in this thing all day anyway?"

Clearly you've never met a vrchat guy

[scienceface]

>the ability to easily put a moving 3-dimensional illusion of anything anywhere in real space.
>use it to simulate 2-dimensional screens.

Golly, I don't know what could have been done differently...

[S]

As someone who is a frequent Quest 2 user I can see how most people will just put their headsets down and not use them after a few weeks, those people clearly didn't get what they wanted from VR. I think there definitely is still a market for VR at least when it comes to gaming because the capacity for immersion its simply unmatched.

[KTSpeedruns]

Most tech since the smart phone can be described as "you had an idea, but you didn't solve any problems."

[namuzed]

I bought an oculus DK1 during the Kickstarter and figured that the next 10 years would be filled with open source and indie developers making cool VR experiences and slowly improving the niche tech. Instead, it had to be "The Next Big Thing" in Silicon Valleys eyes.

[trigerhappy]

I used to be what some people have called a "VR enthusiast". I still have all of my VR stuff, their just sitting in boxes; but I had, what was at the time, the most high end headset on the market, full body tracking, a pc built to fight god, a big open space in my apartment. I haven't played a VR game in months now, possibly not in this year. I think that you nailed it on the head that the hassle of setting everything up and putting everything on is what has kept me from booting it up. That, and none of my friends play VRchat anymore.

[ChatookaMusic]

There's a 50 something year old guy where I work who rarely ever unglues his face from his smartphone, but I have to help him use the computers at work because he literally does not know which button on the mouse to click for what reason

[sunsinger]

it's like how we all thought we would love video phone calls but instead we just text. The tech can be seamless but what does it provide? nothing new of value.

[ChronoTango]

Isn’t this like the 4th time AR and VR have been touted as “the next big thing”?