Microsoft Admits Sales of 'Expensive' HoloLens 'Not Huge', Says More Versions Are Planned (betanews.com)

Microsoft is not giving away too much about the sales figures for HoloLens but goes as far as saying it is "in thousands, not hundreds of thousands". From a report: Speaking at educational technology event the Bett Show in London on Thursday, Roger Walkden, Senior Director and Commercial Lead of HoloLens, acknowledged that the price tag was partly responsible for the small number of sales. Interestingly, though, Microsoft is not bothered by what could be seen as disappointing sales, despite the fact that the company seems to be betting big on HoloLens by adding headset settings in recent Windows 10 Insider builds. [...] But for anyone who feels let down by what HoloLens has to offer, there is good news: "this is version one, and there will be future versions."

Comments

Ya think?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Hololens and while it's cool, it's still pretty rough. The field of view is ridiculously small and the price tag is way too high.

I have a lot of experience developing on mobile and embedded devices and find the MS tool chain to be a pain in the ass. I do admit that I'm pretty baised against MS for just about anything though.

I have a meeting with a defense contractor next month about a possible project using the Hololens so it might be useful for something. If not, it will sit on the shelf next to my Powerglove.

Re: Ya think?

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot heavy and the difficulty some people have adjusting it so it doesn't sag on your face. It's cool to play with for about a half hour and that's it. And that tiny view port at arms length ruins any opportunity to get in close for a look. And a six foot ballerina is only in full view at about 5 meters distance otherwise it's a floating head or torso. Though, it's space tracking is amazing. I hope the next revision brings a more VR type view.

Needs an upgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

I have tried the hololens for corporate use and it's impressive but it have some major drawbacks. The field of view is very small and needs to increase ninefold for the hololens to be really useful outside niche applications. The hololens also have limited use outdoor, it's lasers have limited detection range and it doesn't work in Sunlight.

Right now, VR seems more useful but that might change.

Re:Needs an upgrade

[Nidi62]

A big space that I see where this technology would be very useful would be in flight training. Full flight simulators are extremely expensive and break down very easily. Flight Training Devices are cheaper but barely offer visuals (except level 6/7 FTDs) and in some cases don't even have physical controls and rely on flat panels to display the cockpit layout. Using AR/VR headsets along with tracking gloves (assuming low latency) would allow training programs to rely more on FTDs than on full flight sims, saving costs both in device cost and energy used as FFS's are more expensive than FTDs in both cases. Say $20k per FTD for 2-3 sets of gloves and 4 headsets (1 set glove/headset each for 2 students and an instructor, 1 headset for observer) and you could use FTDs for most sim training, reserving FFS's for check rides for type rating and maybe one or 2 classes of sim training prior to the checking event for familiarization with the sim and getting full motion feedback for maneuvers. It would also reduce cost further by just needing the control panels for feedback and dispensing with the half-cockpit layout that some FTDs have as the cockpit can simply be simulated in the headset.

Well, if they sold it...

[squiggleslash]

...it usually helps to tell everyone you're selling it. Microsoft's marketing for this has been non-existent, to the point I double-taked when I read the summary and said "Wait, they're finally selling them?" I'm not seen a single ad, or even a review.

...which also means I'm inclined to believe Microsoft when they say "No big deal" about the low sales numbers. If they wanted higher sales numbers, they'd actually try to sell the things. It sounds to me that they're trying it out on early adopters, and will roll out a more consumer oriented system with full marketing once they and their customer base are happy with the product.

They actually made the damn thing?

[Guppy]

Roger Walkden, Senior Director and Commercial Lead of HoloLens, acknowledged that the price tag was partly responsible for the small number of sales.

Up until fairly recently, most news about the HoloLens seemed to present it as some sort of far-off research project, with little hope of a commercial product you could actually ever buy. That impression has probably contributed to a lack of hype and development of third-part applications, too.

Re:They lied to investors

[bondsbw]

Where did they lie? This was always a developer version, nobody seriously expected consumer-level sales figures.

Cen't resell either.

[Swistak]

Not only the price is insane, you cannot resell or rent it out either. And there's no warranty. At least in America since in civilised countries those types of EULAs are illegal.

So basically if you Buy one for 3000$ It turns out it's a broken piece of garbage then you're fucked, you cannot even rent it out for others to form similar opinion. that's why there are no reviews, who'd buy such thing for such price and then throw it into garbage?