Microsoft has been awfully quiet about the Holelens 2 for the past few months, but we might inching closer to a firm release date this upcoming month.
The Hololens 2 was first demoed and displayed at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year in Barcelona, and the company said that it would go on sale “later this year.” Although projects like this seem to be pushed back for months at a time, we have reason to believe that Microsoft is going to keep their promise with the Hololens 2 this year.
In a story released from Reuters, Microsoft’s executive vice president, Harry Shum, made an appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai and said that the Hololens 2 will be going on sale sometime in September. When Tech Radar reached out for clarification on Shum’s comments, the company released an official statement. You can see it below.
“As we announced in February, Microsoft HoloLens 2 will begin shipping later this year. We have started collecting expressions of interest for HoloLens 2 preorders and, as part of our standard practice for gathering feedback, have shared near-final prototypes with some customers, but have not announced a date for general availability.”
Something to take away from this quote is their wording on the comments. Not once did they say that they were not releasing the AR headset in September, but they also didn’t release something official. It seems like Shum simply released some news that wasn’t cleared for the public just yet. Although this seems to happen often with smaller companies, it is surprising to see a company of this size and stature having to cover their vice presidents track of words.
If you really want to read between the lines, we would love to sum up what their quote means. It means they are really, really, close to launch. The final prototypes are nearly with customers, and the prototypes closest to the final are already with customers.
The second AR headset from Microsoft is going to get a major facelift compared to the first version. The biggest upgrade is going to be the field of view. This has been making the headlines, but there is much more that is going to make this headset much better than the last one.
Hand tracking is going to be highly improved upon with the Hololens 2, the ergonomics of the headset itself are going to make it much better, object interaction will be better, and eye tracking for both eyes will be a newly added feature. There is going to be so much to love about this headset. The common consumer is going to have their day to day operations improved by the Hololens 2, and businesses that are incorporating AR to their everyday schedule are going to have a field day with the new technology from Microsoft.
The price of this headset is going to be a bit more than the first Hololens, coming in at $3,500. Although the $500 increase looks like it is a lot more, for the improvements you are going to get for that price, you are going to know it was worth the jump in price. This does eliminate a wide set of consumers, but if this is in your price range for AR VR wearables, it is going to be something that you don’t want to miss out on.
With the launch date of the headset about a month away, businesses and high-end consumers are getting ready for what could be the best AR headset to hit the market yet. For more AR and VR news, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
