One of my media hits discussing logistics of the week. This was while I was also battling a bad stomach bug.
Apple finally pulled the trigger and raised prices on a whole bunch of its products this week. Valve pulled its band-aid off and revealed the $1049-plus Steam Machine. Xboxes are going up in price again in August. Meta…released more affordable smart glasses?
I wanted to wax poetic this week, but I got horribly sick for a few days and while I was recovering, I saw more signs of the economy falling horribly out of whack. And, as I did a few media hits about it, I felt angry. I’m calmer now. But it’s on my mind.
Rising electronics prices. RAM suppliers and tech companies trying to prepare is that somehow this is the new norm. Microsoft expecting RAM prices to double again next year. And, meanwhile, a lurking feeling that AI services are going to ramp up their subscription costs to cover increasing token use.
I just don’t see how any of this is going to work. And there are plenty of people who have been saying this for years already, but this particular buzzsaw of higher gadget prices and higher future AI subscriptions equals…who’s buying that?
The MacBook Neo’s now a $700-and-up laptop. iPads start at $450. Take your everyday gadget and add $50 to $100 or more to the price. Continue across the board. With no end in sight.
There are occasional exceptions. I went to Meta’s New York event earlier this week to see their new Meta Glasses, and speak with Meta’s wearables head Alex Himel, and see CTO Andrew Bosworth discuss the new glasses, which are very much a price and fashion play. They’re cheaper, ditch the Ray-Ban and Oakley branding for a Meta custom brand, but are still made with EssilorLuxottica. It’s a clever move because it somehow bucks the rising-price trend everywhere else, a sort of MacBook Neo maneuver for smart glasses. At $299, they’re keeping costs down to where Meta Ray-Bans were before the prices started creeping up. The glasses feel good, look good, and support more prescriptions. I think they’re becoming better glasses.
But they’re not yet better on software and privacy fronts. Meta’s hinted that changes are coming for their dev-focused Connect conference in September, but how many, and will they evolve Meta AI to be as useful as Google’s Gemini promises to be on their glasses? And what about the privacy concerns, both for those worrying about being recorded and those who worry about how their data is being used? I don’t think Meta’s done nearly enough on those fronts yet. They’re betting they don’t need to…yet. But they do.
Meta’s glasses are damn good as wearable cameras and headphones, and have some already useful assistive features. But Meta should push forward hard to stay ahead of what Google and Apple are likely to do…and, companies like OpenAI, which just took one of Apple’s Vision Pro and glasses leads. Or, is Meta thinking that people who need glasses will just pick up a fun pair for the summer, enjoy them, and not worry? They might not be wrong, and I plan to wear a pair while fishing soon, but price alone isn’t the only problem to solve.
And the question with Meta’s glasses, and all AI glasses and wearables, is this: will AI subscriptions be the next shoe to drop for these currently mostly-free wearable services? And if so, what cost?
Wow, this was a wonky newsletter this week. I have a lot of practical thoughts in my head before a vacation next week, when I’ll be…playing Steam Machine, which I finally got for review. More on that at CNET soon enough, but I do love how small it is. I don’t love its price, though.
And that brings me back to what I started with: wondering what’s going to happen to all the electronics to come. Are we going to buy less? Make do more? I kinda just want to practice magic, do improv, read books, and appreciate my own brain as the world’s economic logic melts to pieces. I have plays I want to write. I just started another. Make your own magic with paper and pencils, and celebrate that you still can.
That’s my final poetic thought here: I think of new gaming devices, XR, and wearables as being possible magic doorways to new experiences and ideas. But, if they’re heading down a road of increasingly higher prices, and gatekept by AI subscription services that might be ramping upwards, maybe we need to be prepared to think of lateral moves towards strange new immersive creativity. Maybe tech can be bypassed completely. Or, better solutions found. I’m following tech as it evolves, and also bunkering myself to forms of creativity that can work in case those new tech territories end up being priced out of reason. I’ve always liked low-key indie garage theater, stuff with nothing at all, games with just people and ideas and sets that are just chairs and maybe a light. I’m opening up my mind past my fears of the pricepocalypse.