Microsoft could have abandoned the development of the third version of its Hololens Augmented Reality Glasses. It is what ensures a report produced by Business Insider, which quotes more than 20 internal sources of the company and concludes that the company will not launch a Hololens 3 year on the market, as expected to do.
Internal problems and doubts about the long-term strategy of the product seem to be behind cancellation. The report also points out that the environment within the development team is rarefied and morals resentful of the apparent fault for the product.
Microsoft announced the first Hololens in 2015. The glasses, which have several cameras and sensors, are capable of projecting virtual objects in the field of views with which it is possible to interact without having to wear gloves or other accessories.
The first model, destined to developers, began selling in 2016 and in 2019 the company put a second most advanced and lightweight model for sale. It has also reached agreements with several companies and institutions to try HoloCeans in different professional environments. Glasses, for example, have been used at NASA, US Army. And several hospitals to test how increased reality techniques can help when performing different tasks.
But the future of the device as a consumer product was uncertain, even though Microsoft has shown some leisure and personal productivity applications in it. Chris Capossela, one of Microsoft's marketing reponsons, recognized recently at an internal meeting of the company that at the moment the product is a "rounding error" in the company's accounts and "a nice product for promotional videos".
Frank Shaw, Vice President of Microsoft, says in any case that Hololens continues to be a "critical" part of the company's plans for emerging media, such as metaverse. Several Hololens team engineers, in any case, have recently abandoned the company to be part of the target virtual reality laboratories (the company previously known as Facebook).
The rumor that sounds now more strongly is that Microsoft would be trying to reach an agreement with Samsung for product together with new versions of these increased reality helmets. As in the world of the PC, Microsoft may be more interested in controlling the operating system and the metaverse software than in the manufacture of devices to access it.
Date Of Update: 06 February 2022, 14:47
