iPod godfather says Apple 'jumped the shark' with its Vision Pro headset
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- Tony Fadell created the iPod and was instrumental in the creation of the iPhone.
- He criticized the metaverse last year in an interview with Wired.
- Fadell praised the Vision Pro's hardware, but slammed other aspects of the device.
Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive known as the iPod godfather, just dunked on the company's new $3,499 Vision Pro headset.
"Apple has truly 'Jumped The Shark,'" he tweeted on Tuesday, referring to when a TV show or company resorts to desperate measures to maintain popularity.
Fadell, who created the iPod and was heavily involved in the creation of the iPhone, had positive things to say about the Vision Pro's hardware. But he slammed the price, battery life, and other aspects.
—Tony Fadell (@tfadell) June 6, 2023
Tech supply chain consultant Jeff Lutz replied that Apple has work to do on battery consumption, but said the company will likely sell a larger, better external battery pack.
"It's has truly nothing to do with 2hr battery life," Fadell responded. "The apps & marketing pitch is awful even if it had 24 HR battery life…. This is not a painkiller. Platforms don't become useful products. Useful products become platforms…"
Last year, he weighed in on the metaverse, a digital realm that Apple is now calling "spatial computing."
"Fuck the metaverse," he said in an interview with Wired. "In the virtual world, the meta world, whatever you want to call it, I can't look into your eyes, I can't see your face, to build trust and a real personal connection," Fadell told Wired. "There's no dancing in the virtual world when people don't even have bodies. When I'm actually with someone, my hair stands up on the back of my neck, because my body has a sensor for that."