Microsoft is planning to discontinue its combined actuality HoloLens 2 headsets, in response to a report from UploadVR. Manufacturing on the HoloLens 2 is ending, and gross sales will stop when inventory runs out.
Safety updates can 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 all the time been costly and Microsoft has focused them to enterprise prospects slightly than most 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 because of a scarcity of focus and inside {hardware} improvement challenges. Microsoft has additionally been downsizing its combined actuality group 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 convey Xbox Cloud Gaming and its Workplace apps to the Quest headsets, and it is usually engaged on Home windows 11 integration with the Quest.
Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional headset has been marketed to each customers and enterprise prospects in contrast to the HoloLens, nevertheless it at present shares a number of the identical shortcomings, comparable to a excessive price ticket. Apple just isn’t but able to abandon combined actuality, and there’s one other model of the Imaginative and prescient Professional within the works. A second AR/VR headset might come as quickly as 2025.
