What's New: Apple is quietly taking over the AR/VR market

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Apple has a question for you: would you prefer your reality virtual or augmented?

• New details are out on Apple's VR headset, which is rumored to hit stores in 2022. The virtual and augmented reality markets are predicted to be a $73B industry by 2024, and present vast new opportunities for indie hackers.
• Pinterest recently hit 98M daily active users, but it's still one of the most underutilized growth channels. 77% of Pinterest users are women, and most of the platform's posts promote e-commerce products.
• This founder set March 1st as a hard launch date following a decade of failure to get a product on the market. One of his best anti-procrastination strategies? Don't break the daily streak of progress.

Want to share your ideas with nearly 70K indie hackers? Submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter. —Channing

👓 Apple is Quietly Taking Over the AR/VR Market

from the Indie Airwaves newsletter by Nicky Milner

Apple's rumored VR headset could hit stores in 2022, and is predicted to cost ~$3K. With new reality-bending products potentially dropping next year, Apple will open the door to new opportunities for indie hackers.

Apple's secret reality-altering push

AR vs. VR: Virtual reality (VR) headsets fill your field of vision with whatever is being displayed. When you turn them off, you experience the feeling of being blindfolded.

Augmented reality (AR) headsets, on the other hand, add to your reality by overlaying additional information on what you actually see. For instance, an AR headset could scan a tree that you're looking at in real time and display information about what type of tree it is. Here's an easy rule of thumb: VR replaces, AR adds.

The background: Apple has long been rumored to have hundreds of employees working on top-secret AR and VR projects. At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020, the company updated its developer ARKit to Version 4.0 with a suite of new functionalities and features, including a new API.

On the consumer side, Apple also just released its first AppleTV+ AR App. AR hit the market with high expectations, fueled largely by the viral success of Pokémon Go, a mobile app released in 2016.

• Pokémon Go attracted nearly 160M users worldwide, and is predicted to exceed 500M users in the next four years.

• The explosion of interest in AR at that time was primarily targeted at consumer and marketing-based apps. Later, the concept seemed to go underground, absent the rapid adoption initially predicted.

The quiet growth of AR/VR

The details: AR has actually been widely adopted in industrial settings such as product design, maintenance, and technical support. Google Glass launched its "Enterprise Edition 2.0" over a year ago, and other software companies have integrated AR into remote support and instructional apps.

A recent report indicates that several organizations were prepared to consider adopting AR in some form in early 2020. However, COVID-19 sidetracked the embrace of this particular innovation as companies prioritized building infrastructure for remote work, and adapted operations models.

Today, companies of all sizes are discovering how AR technologies can help them address challenges. AR professional use cases, such as knowledge capture, employee training, and digital instruction, are prime for exploration. In the retail space, brands such as IKEA, Sephora, Timberland, and Home Depot have experimented with product visualization, virtual try-on, and indoor product navigation.

What's in store?: Statista's 2021 report projects that AR/VR will be a $73B industry by 2024.

Growth opportunities include:

• Expanded options and interest for online retail shopping
• Remote assistance and technical manuals
• Virtual events
• Education and e-learning

Takeaway: Founders should watch this space. AR/VR will present countless opportunities to launch new products and services. Those who can harness their skills and expertise will be prepared to create in this emerging market.

What are your thoughts on the AR/VR field? Would you consider adopting this technology for your business?

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Indie Airwaves for more.

📰 In the News

🎮 The Reddit user who led GameStop's surge is being sued in US federal court for securities fraud. The plaintiff hopes to turn the complaint into a class action suit.

📺 HBO Max plans to increase children's content to compete with Disney+ and Netflix.

🔌 Startups are developing sensors to detect power grid failures more quickly amid widespread power outages in Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

✋ Microsoft's plan to acquire Pinterest has stalled. Pinterest is currently valued at $51B.

🔥 NZXT's H1 computer case has been recalled for catching on fire. The metal screws have been replaced with nylon in the newer cases.

🖼 Pinterest Hits 98M Active Users on Par with TikTok and SnapChat

from the User Acquisition Channels newsletter by Darko G.

Pinterest is now clocking 98M daily users, putting the platform on the level of TikTok and SnapChat. Pinterest is probably the most underutilized acquisition channel, especially for e-commerce founders. We'll also touch on new developments in Twitter cold outreach and TikTok reposts on Instagram.

Pinterest is now as big as TikTok and SnapChat in the US

The numbers: 98M daily active users are on Pinterest in the US. 77% of Pinterest users are women.

By comparison:

• TikTok has 100M daily active users.
• SnapChat has 108M daily active users.

There have been several articles written on Pinterest being a wildly underutilized acquisition channel. Personally, I knew it was big, but not that big. It's likely that other folks are similarly unaware of the major reach that Pinterest actually has.

What this means for you: If you're targeting a predominantly female audience, definitely consider Pinterest. This platform would be especially helpful for you if you're a tech founder, since most of the things promoted on Pinterest are e-commerce products.

Twitter as a cold outreach channel

Many founders use Twitter search to successfully find leads: Say you own a SaaS company that helps users improve Facebook Ads results. You could use keywords like "facebook ads suck" to find people on Twitter complaining about this topic, and reach out to see if you can help them.

This approach is called "trigger-based marketing," meaning that you react to a certain action/trigger that the user took.

Turns out you can do "trigger-based marketing" on Twitter as well, using apps like Snoopbill to track changes to various Twitter bios.

What this means for you: Take a look at this Twitter bio history from MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTubers on earth:

Notice how in July 8th, he changed his website to ShopMrBeast? This is a great moment to try to get in touch with big influencers who are in "promotional mode."

Promotional mode: Have you noticed that when small podcasts interview big guests, the big guests are usually promoting something (a new book, project, etc.)?

I've been in many Clubhouse rooms on podcast marketing, and many people have mentioned that they implement the following tactic: They wait for big names to release something new and then reach out to them, offering exposure for the new project.

Say you own a SaaS company that improves e-commerce conversion rates. If you had contacted MrBeast's team on July 8th, my guess is, you'd be much more likely to get a response then vs. five months prior.

The takeaway: You can use this tactic in all sorts of ways. Make a list of potential leads on Twitter, monitor their bios using an app like Snoopbill, and note changes that will make them more open to trying your product or service. Then, reach out!

You can now repost TikTok videos on Instagram

The details: A week ago, Instagram announced that it won't promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark. This change was made to prevent people from simply reposting their TikTok videos on Instagram.

The solution: Use a tool like Snip Tik to enter your video URL and get your video returned without the watermark. That's it.

What this means for you: It's not a secret that Instagram now gives Reels more visibility over traditional posts. If you decide to try Reels by reposting your videos from TikTok, you now have various tools at your disposal to avoid penalty.

What stood out to you most about this week's acquisition channels? Will you be using any of these tips?

Discuss this story, or subscribe to User Acquisition Channels for more.

🧠 Harry's Growth Tip

from the Marketing Examples newsletter by Harry Dry

Let's say I'd built some podcast recording software. This would be the email I'd send to get my first 10 customers.

• Subject Line: "Your podcast audio..."
• If you want to personalize: "PS — Get Dr Patel on again. Hilarious episode!"

Nice and simple :)

Go here for more short, sweet, practical marketing tips.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Marketing Examples for more.

🚀 After 10 Years of Failure to Launch, This Founder Sets a Date

from the Milestone Road newsletter by James Fleischmann

After failing to launch a product for over a decade, Karl Cordes has set a date. On March 1, 2021, he will finally launch WP Stoic. Here are the strategies he's using to beat procrastination and quell self-doubt.

Don't break the chain

Karl has adopted Jerry Seinfeld's Don't Break the Chain strategy for beating procrastination:

1. Decide on a general task that you want to complete every day (i.e. writing).
2. Get a wall calendar and put a big red "X" on every day that you complete that task.
3. Watch the chain of "X's" grow.
4. Don't break the chain.

We as humans like to physically see progress. We are more likely to keep doing a daily task if for no other reason than to avoid "breaking the chain." Because you won't want to have a gap on a day where you can't mark an "X," this is a great strategy to keep moving forward.

Post. A lot.

Karl also holds himself accountable by building in public. He posts his progress, deadlines, and goals, and knowing that people are watching motivates him to keep going. He also follows indie hackers who are building in public (Austin Ginders has been a big inspiration for him), and learns from them.

Another strategy that Karl uses is limiting his time by setting tight deadlines. Giving himself a short period of time, and publicly posting the deadline, increases his productivity by squeezing out time for fear and doubt. He won't let the fear stop him as it has in the past:

I have a pattern of failure with my side-projects. It's played out more than a few times [with] good ideas that could be profitable. It's not like I launched and nobody bought them. Or that they bought them then asked for refunds. This is a much worse sort of failure.

There's often a deeper reason for our subconscious patterns. Karl mentions that it's easier to have a perfect product when it stays in his mind, versus an imperfect product in real life. Illusions can be comforting, and they're easy to maintain until users are tearing your product apart. But Karl has put aside the puidearsuit of perfectionist monster, and is determined:

I'm not going to let this idea die on the vine like so many others. I want to be able to point to this business and say, "I built this."

We'll follow up with Karl in a few weeks to check in on his launch!

What have you achieved this week? Celebrate the small wins! 🎉

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Milestone Road for more.

🐦 The Tweetmaster's Pick

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

🏁 Enjoy This Newsletter?

Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Also, you can submit a section for us to include in a future newsletter.

Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Nathalie Zwimpfer for the illustrations, and to Nicky Milner, Darko G., and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing