This was the approach Anki (which recently shut down) took for robotics. I actually had a similar idea, but whenever I went to the drawing board to make robot toys I could never make anything that was both fun and affordable - using videogames as a benchmark it basically always lost. I think Anki did as close to an admirable job as you could at trying to sell robotic toys while developing more utilitarian robots (they were working on a chore bot but it was woefully inadequate), but they still failed pretty hard. I was always surprised by their ability to continue to raise large sums of money (they raised about a quarter billion in total).
There is a similar approach being taken in the eVTOL space, with Kitty Hawk trying to develop their Heaviside as an obvious toy for the rich (single seater, short range, "quiet"). I think people will refuse to allow so much noise pollution in the skies, not to mention the inherent question of safety as all these designs make serious compromises to flight stability in order to make them so lightweight and take off vertically.
There is merit to this approach though - you could certainly argue hypercars are toys for the super rich and eventually that technology trickles down to cheaper vehicles. But the economics around racing cars are much more complicated, including making an entire sport (and an extremely popular one at that) to justify the development costs. You could also argue Tesla did this, starting with the Roadster, then the Model S, and now the Model 3. Tesla's financials have been a source of great debate for a decade now though.
Whatever the next big thing is, I bet the media hasn't caught onto it yet. I don't think it's VR, AR, self-driving cars, general AI, or anything else that has already been woefully overhyped. It'll be something nobody was looking for and the right person stumbles upon it at the right place and time.
I'd have to try it. The question is what's the killer app? VR essentially has 3 things going for it after becoming somewhat mature - Google Earth, Beat Saber, and porn. All are considered better in VR, but none are really "omg VR is the future!" level of amazing (to be fair I haven't tried the porn yet so maybe I don't realize how much I'm missing out).
The notion of having a HUD for my eyes everywhere I go sounds neat at first, until I think about it a bit more and it just seems like sensory overload. I can always just pull out my phone if there's something I want to know, and that thing is already pretty invasive when it comes to my daily living - do I really need something more than that?
When it happens, we'll know. The iPhone was famously expected to be such a failure that Verizon refused to be a carrier. Microsoft also joked about Apple being able to make a smart phone. Blackberry felt the same way. The only company that took them seriously was Google with Android.
Out of curiosity, what is it you think AR will revolutionize? What do you consider the killer app?
A possible killer app might be something for business meetings. Videocalls are already a huge thing, but many feel like they're missing some real personal intimacy in there. If instead of a videocall, you could all be using AR to see each other walk around in front of you, that might make it a whole lot more appealing. If it's done right, you could have the same private one on one side conversations that are common in real life, but just in some AR space.
AR has a clear advantage over VR here as you wouldn't be blind to your real surroundings so you'd still be able to talk with the people in real life too (and not look like a doofus who walks into walls)
I don't think there's going to be one killer app per se, just the feed of information streamed to peoples' brains is going to become so much larger. The one good example I can think of is walking the city, wearing an AR device and you get relevant news, historical pieces, restaurants, etc. as you walk.
There is a similar approach being taken in the eVTOL space, with Kitty Hawk trying to develop their Heaviside as an obvious toy for the rich (single seater, short range, "quiet"). I think people will refuse to allow so much noise pollution in the skies, not to mention the inherent question of safety as all these designs make serious compromises to flight stability in order to make them so lightweight and take off vertically.
There is merit to this approach though - you could certainly argue hypercars are toys for the super rich and eventually that technology trickles down to cheaper vehicles. But the economics around racing cars are much more complicated, including making an entire sport (and an extremely popular one at that) to justify the development costs. You could also argue Tesla did this, starting with the Roadster, then the Model S, and now the Model 3. Tesla's financials have been a source of great debate for a decade now though.
Whatever the next big thing is, I bet the media hasn't caught onto it yet. I don't think it's VR, AR, self-driving cars, general AI, or anything else that has already been woefully overhyped. It'll be something nobody was looking for and the right person stumbles upon it at the right place and time.