Comment by georgewsinger | Hacker News Reader

Comment by georgewsinger | Hacker News Reader

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I understand your concerns about pricing. We made a post earlier this year discussing why our expenses are so high.[1] TLDR: Low economies of scale and high launch costs. With that said, our pricing and specs are still competitive with ultra-premium VR headsets and premium office laptops (which we have essentially combined into one unit).

We also have a pricing option to reserve a headset with a partial deposit: pay $1,499 now, and then $1,499 right before we ship (Q4 '22/Q1 '23 target). This allows you to reserve a headset now at a lower price, see more proof throughout the year that we are performing our manufacturing duties diligently (via weekly updates), and then only paying the remainder of the balance ($1,499 + taxes/shipping) once we have the headset fully ready to ship to you.

We also just made a discount code for this thread: "DISCOUNT_HN" (limited to 10 for now) which adds an extra $100 off.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29923197

>(Q4 '22/Q1 '23 target)

We'll talk when it actually ships.

You do understand 3k is a ton of money right ? The other issue is even if I did pre order , the second you miss a release date I'd file a charge back.

Get too many charge backs and payment processors will stop accepting orders for you.

To be honest it would make more sense to develop an ultra cheap option, anything 1k or less, and you'll find people ready to take a risk. You might still get in trouble if you miss your ship date though.

You can buy an HTC Vive for 800$, and a PI4 for 60$. Where is the other 2k in markup coming from ?

This would be my concern too. The special sauce is in the integration of camera, headset and custom distro (much like remarkable is great because of the polish/software, not the hardware), but it's hard to see how this works, or if the Simula is practical, until you get it and try.

Is the experience seamless, does the display ever lag or cause nausea (I've had this before in VR envs) - does it get better/worse with long-term usage. Can you see via the cameras clearly enough that you never need take the headset off, even in the given "café" scenario? Is the headset comfortable enough for long-term use as a monitor replacement - does it get hot or sweaty?

As such, I'll wait for the reviews..

Appreciate the feedback, and totally understand why you would want to see reviews before making any deposits. We are targeting to have review units in a few months, which hopefully will provide some useful commentary on these issues from people besides us. For now:

RE cameras: we're pushing for high-resolution RGB cameras (a lot of existing headsets have pretty low quality/low fidelity cameras). If you aren't able to go for longish periods without taking the headset off (when needing to see your surroundings at least), then we are definitely doing something wrong. For latency considerations, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30445428

RE headset ergonomics & sweatiness: see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30442745

Over the coming days/weeks, we're pushing out blog updates which discuss the technical details of these issues (leading up to review units). If you're interested, you can sign up at newsletter.simulavr.com.

> You can buy an HTC Vive for 800$, and a PI4 for 60$.

Why would anyone use Dropbox?? You can just use SFTP, CVS and a 5$ VPS... [0]

Seriously though, let's treat your comment as non-trolling:

The HTC Vive - a 6-year-old device - does not have anything close to the per-eye resolution needed to do any kind of desktop computing, AND it uses outside-in tracking, meaning you need external lighthouses so it's not really portable.

You would have been better off saying "You can buy an Oculus Quest 2 for $629" instead.

The PI4 does not provide the computing power to drive a VR display like that. That's kind of it right there. Bad example again.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Well at least if my Pi4 + HTC Vive combo doesn't work I can send it back.

That's my big concern here, your talking about a new 3k device from a company that's never shipped hardware before.

Plus with Dropbox they didn't ask early adopters to drop 3k!

Then you aren't a early adopter. It's astonishing how many people here on hackernews don't understand this. Yes it's a lot of money, but it isn't comparable to anything else on the market right now. If you think it does you haven't actually looked at the specs or know anything about the VR market right now.

I get being cynical, but damn, ya'll need to shut up and stop trolling. This first edition is about testing the market. Proving people will buy it in a limited run and get the ball moving. If this first run goes well then there will hopefully be a v2 that is cheaper and enjoys the economies of scale.

It's like you never want a new manufacturer to exist. If you aren't going to buy it, then just don't buy it. You could say "hey this is too pricey for me right now with the risk, maybe in the future I'll be in the market" and go on about your day.

Please take a look at the inflation adjusted prices of early personal computers for a fair comparison.

The Dropbox comment doesn't apply here. Simula One is meant for Linux geeks, the exact kind of person who would be just as happy (or happier) to roll their own Dropbox if it was cheaper.

I think you misunderstand the reason that comment is so notorious..

> You can buy an HTC Vive for 800$, and a PI4 for 60$. Where is the other 2k in markup coming from ?

Good luck running SimulaVR on a PI4...

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