HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft “Underestimated” Business Interest in HoloLens

Microsoft “Underestimated” Business Interest in HoloLens

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While the augmented reality headset was designed as a gaming product, has found businesses are interested in HoloLens and what it can achieve.

Microsoft admits that it “underestimated” how appealing the augmented reality device HoloLens would be to businesses and for commercial uses.

The company had envisaged HoloLens as a gaming and entertainment unit, but the company says its horizons for the device are changing thanks to interest from the business sector.

With increased enterprise interest Microsoft has focused on making more business oriented applications for the HoloLens platform.

Chris Capossela, Microsoft's chief marketing officer, explained to GeekWire that the company was taken aback by business interest, but has now adapted its vision for HoloLens moving forward.

Hololens official Microsoft

We totally underestimated the commercial interest in this thing. The team who built it, a lot of them had their roots in Xbox. Alex Kipman and Kudo [Tsunoda]. And so they originally envisioned it as something more along those lines, but as we started to show it to people, we were blown away by the commercial interest.

Developer HoloLens kits are already available after Microsoft started rolling them out after a Build 2016 announcement last week. What has surprised many is how consumer ready the HoloLens is as a piece of hardware, it already looks above a proof of concept device.

Indeed, Microsoft has confirmed that the device could ship to consumers as it is, but as admitted that the $3,000 cost is prohibitive. The only way the company says it will release the expansive HoloLens is when the level of content is of a high standard, with enough content available to make sure the price is not a deciding factor.

Indeed, while HoloLens will change the way in which we consume media and play games (along with virtual reality), Microsoft says the Developer Edition is finding more interest from business.

Early users are primarily big companies and groups, including Lowe's, Case Western Reserve University, NASA, Saab, Volvo and others. Real estate company Skanska and digital production agency Studio 216 just announced plans for the “world's first holographic real estate leasing center,” for a high-rise office project in downtown Seattle.

SOURCE: GeekWire

Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.

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