Microsoft is planning to discontinue its combined actuality HoloLens 2 headsets, in keeping with a report from UploadVR. Manufacturing on the HoloLens 2 is ending, and gross sales will stop when inventory runs out.
Safety updates will likely be supplied till December 31, 2027, however after that time, Microsoft plans to finish software program help for the HoloLens 2.
Microsoft was one of many first firms to delve into combined actuality know-how, and it launched the unique HoloLens in 2016, following up with the HoloLens 2 in 2019. The HoloLens headsets have at all times been costly and Microsoft has focused them to enterprise clients quite than most of the people.
On the present time, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have plans for an additional HoloLens headset. There have been rumors of a model three again in 2022, however work was reportedly canceled on account of an absence of focus and inner {hardware} improvement challenges. Microsoft has additionally been downsizing its combined actuality crew in 2023 and 2024.
Microsoft does apparently plan to proceed supporting its HoloLens IVAS, which stands for built-in visible augmentation system. It’s an AR headset that Microsoft is creating for the U.S. Military, and it’s set to be examined in early 2025 to find out its feasibility for full-scale manufacturing.
As Microsoft has been winding down its work on the HoloLens, it has partnered with Meta to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming and its Workplace apps to the Quest headsets, and it’s also engaged on Home windows 11 integration with the Quest.
Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional headset has been marketed to each shoppers and enterprise clients not like the HoloLens, however it at the moment shares a number of the similar shortcomings, comparable to a excessive price ticket. Apple just isn’t but able to abandon combined actuality, and there may be one other model of the Imaginative and prescient Professional within the works. A second AR/VR headset might come as quickly as 2025.