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What happened to the HoloLens?
Two years ago, Microsoft was able to make buzz around its augmented reality (AR) HoloLens helmet. The company has positioned the bulky device, which superimposes holograms on the user's field of view, ideal for mainstream and professional use. He accompanied the material with an SDK, an emulator and documentation, in the hope that developers around the world begin to develop AR applications
At the time, Microsoft seemed well positioned to seize the rising wave around the AR. Google, Apple and other companies were just beginning to publicly express their interest in the technology. Magic Leap, a secret start-up in the space, had not yet released images of its long-developmental headset, despite investments of $ 1.4 billion.
Yet in the years that followed, Microsoft did not capitalize on buzz by pushing a product to consumers. Instead, he offered a developer version of HoloLens for $ 3,000, and his presentations focused largely on commercial and industrial use. At the present time, the interest of the material for specialized professions such as architecture is important.
The sale of expensive business products is in Microsoft's traditional "safe zone" and its leaders can undoubtedly justify this strategy. the more companies adopt HoloLens, the more they can rationalize (and devalue) technology for consumer use. Future iterations of the technology could offer a wider field of view (FOV) for holograms, which is a continuous criticism; Lighter material is also desirable (although the current version is well balanced for its size.)
But Microsoft's strategy echoes that of another convicted AR device, Google Glbad. Like the HoloLens, Google Glbad was unveiled with a lot of fanfare; then, instead of deploying a (relatively) affordable consumer version, Google focused on selling $ 1,500 development models. Technology professionals quickly became disinterested and the nascent ecosystem of software and services around hardware collapsed.
To meet Microsoft's challenge, other technology companies have embraced the smartphone as the ultimate platform for augmented reality. If the device in your pocket can give you a perfectly adapted AR experience, why would you pay thousands of dollars for a bulky headphone?
For many consumers, the answer is: you would not do it. And for developers who need a lot of consumer sales to keep the lights on, it means potentially focusing on the development of smartphone-focused ARs instead of HoloLens or other specialized headsets . In this scenario, Microsoft is finding it increasingly difficult to get out of the business silo that it could originally mean as a stepping stone to a broader market.
To be fair, there is a solid revenue path to targeting the industries that need improvement. . But following this could mean that Microsoft finds itself stuck in third or fourth place behind Google and Apple, just like it did in the smartphone wars. Anything could boil down to whether Microsoft is actually publishing a smaller, more affordable edition of HoloLens in early 2019, as suggested by some sources.
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