Microsoft seems to be exploring new territory, previously reserved for those who need a nice mouse or headphones with the pure sound of platinum. Their HoloLens has been available for several months and they have managed to sell several thousand of them in that time. Roger Walkden, the commercial lead for HoloLens spoke with The Register and stated that he is happy with the amount of sales so far. While you cannot expect a headset costing well over $2000 to have large commercial appeal, the pittance of sales of the HoloLens so far makes you wonder if they have misjudged the market. Then again, maybe we will be seeing Windows 11 Rhodium Exclusive Edition on offer for a select few.
"The Microsoft HoloLens, Judge Dredd-style "mixed reality" headset, went on sale in the UK last year, with the firm offering a developer-only version for £2,179, and an enterprised-focused model for £4,529."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- IBM old guard dropping like flies in POWER and cloud restructure @ The Register
- Cisco: We know what you all want – a $10,000 70in whiteboard with a $190/mo cloud sub @ The Register
- Security Updates Guide @ Microsoft
- Samsung's Galaxy S8 Will Feature a Headphone Jack, Desktop Dock, 'Infinity Display' and More, Says In-Depth Report @ Slashdot
- Google releases all-HTML5 Chrome 56 with extra encryption cues @ The Inquirer
- Gmail Will Soon Block JavaScript File Attachments @ Slashdot
- Tesoro Zone Balance Gaming Chair Review @ Techgage
- Tesla Vs. Edison @ Hack a Day
I first read that as “optical
I first read that as “optical delusion”
also a contender
also a contender
Does Jeremy have a disdain
Does Jeremy have a disdain for Microsoft?
Yep. He tries to hide it
Yep. He tries to hide it sometimes, but often not very effectively.
I am pretty upfront about the
I am pretty upfront about the fact my attitude stems from my day job, infrastructure support for a very large international corportation which primarily runs Windows. That ensures I see the worst of Microsoft and occaisonally work directly with Microsoft CSRs/tech support. It is more a case of the fact that I know they can do better than they have been, rather than random insults.
Those I save for peripherals which cost more than $10K.
Right, but it comes off as
Right, but it comes off as very unprofessional in my opinion. It isn’t consistent with the other writing on this site.
You can’t tell? Every single
You can’t tell? Every single Microsoft post is negative, even things that are really good include a backhanded insult baked in.
Did Microsoft touch your no-no’s Jeremy?
Look at my posts on Surface
Look at my posts on Surface Hub before you make a blanket statement.
Why did Jeremy not answer the
Why did Jeremy not answer the original question, but rather, spend time arguing others? Is he just defensive?
I did; perhaps you just
I did; perhaps you just didn't like the way in which I replied?
Everybody counted among the
Everybody counted among the living hates M$! It’s only those undead flesh eating zombies(M$ stockholders, management, and marketing) that do not have a great disdain for that spawn of Redmond’s rotting puss of an Hardware/OS/Ecosystem unjustly foisted upon the world.
I’ve used these and I can
I’ve used these and I can agree. They’re very underwhelming. I think my 9 year old liked them. Then again, he likes anything shiny–until the next shiny things shows up.
I’m sure MS is waiting
I’m sure MS is waiting for processor tech to catch up before 2.0. Is 835 the answer? MS and AMD having lots of sleepovers lately.
It’s a developer unit with no
It’s a developer unit with no commercial software for $3000. Selling more than 100 is miraculous… Selling 1000 is unheard of! Don’t damn it until it’s an actual product.
Agreed. Microsoft was
Agreed. Microsoft was marketing this at developers, not gamers. The preview video was really cool but clearly was about features under development.
https://blogs.windows.com/dev
https://blogs.windows.com/devices/?p=259298?ocid=newsletter_ema_omc_hol_HelloKitty#A3v5WIkBFFgAooLh.97
Well, not necessarily only Ballmer's favourite people.
I trusted MS and invested on
I trusted MS and invested on a Xbox One, thinking that I could enjoy all the motion sensing games on its predecessor. But MS ditched the Kinect sensor in its infancy. I’m not sure what the future holds for this poor baby.
Hololens is not aimed at the
Hololens is not aimed at the consumer market. For the market it IS aimed at (those who are using performance-equivalent systems made up of disparate components, and those who want a similar system but cannot afford one currently) it’s the deal of the century. Easily an order of magnitude lower in cost than the normal method of assembling an AR system from separate HMD, tracking system, host PC, and bespoke software. Cram all those into one box, make that box small enough to carry around (rather than being a room your dedicate to the task), make it cost a tiny fraction of what you’d otherwise pay, and make it easy to hook into existing systems without hiring a software house to build things from the ground up? It’s a no-brainer.
Microsoft aren’t looking to dump these onto consumers, they’re looking to grow the existing enterprise market from the top down to meet existing demand.
Again its posts like this
Again its posts like this that make me continue to block all ads on this site. One day when this site gets rid of its anti Microsoft stance (aka Jeremy) I will White list this site. I mean its pretty ridiculous considering a vast majority of your readers look for hardware reviews to use on their Microsoft OS system.
(No subject)
Up yours Ballmer! You big fat
Up yours Ballmer! You big fat sweaty stinky ape dancing spastically around the stage flinging gallons of your marketing induced ooze screaming Developers Developers Developers!
It’s Vulkan/Linux and the dustbin for your nefarious VR plans, you marketing minion and sockpuppets!
Yeah, it’s getting pretty
Yeah, it’s getting pretty old. Whenever I see a negative headline about Microsoft, I immediately assume it’s written by Jeremy.
Whenever I see negative
Whenever I see negative responce to a negative headline about Microsoft, I assume that it must be a paid M$ marketing monkey! The very idea of M$ is negative by default and it’s 100% M$’s fault for that and 0% Jeremy’s!
So, what lessons do you think
So, what lessons do you think MS is learning?
I mean, this is still essentially a dev kit sold direct to large businesses. It was a concept to get an idea of what people would want to do with such a product, what form factors work, what kind of programming environment would work best, etc. And as things have developed, it sounds to me like they are learning all of the right lessons.
I would love to get a v2 or v3 edition of such an AR device with a wider field of view, a tether to a real PC, etc. But, MS has already stated that we will be getting that form 3rd party manufacturers rather than making it themselves. Should hear more about it at Build.
More or less the lessons of
More or less the lessons of Microsoft mobile OS and the Zune. A great product can be prevented from becoming popular by assuming that putting the Microsoft name on it is enough to get people to buy it. The market for the HoloLens is small but those sales numbers seem to indicate that there is an issue with their rollout.