With the major VR headsets scheduled to be launched this year, surely Microsoft’s HoloLens would be available sometime soon? Well, according to Microsoft, that would be very unlikely as the company is in no rush to release the product.
Speaking at the TED conference in Vancouver, Alex Kipman refused to put a time frame as to when Microsoft will start selling its augmented reality headset. “When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it. It could be as soon as we say ‘yes’, and it could be as long as a ‘very long time’,” Kipman said.
Part of the reason as to why Microsoft is being so cautious over the HoloLens can be attributed to the Kinect’s failure. When it was originally launched, the Kinect went on to break sales records, landing it in the Guinness Book of World Records. However, consumer enthusiasm waned after the initial hype the Kinect has due to a combination of poor games support and the Kinect requiring a large open space for it to function properly. “It was not a pleasant experience. It was just not ready to go sell 10 million units in 60 days, which is what it did,” says Kipman.
While the consumer version of the HoloLens won’t be available anytime soon, Microsoft has begun selling the HoloLens Developers Kit to developers and business for USD 3,000. Kipman added that the developer’s version of the HoloLens is “pretty consumer-ready”.
Source: Recode
