Microsoft May Scrap HoloLens 3 As Metaverse Hype Hits Fever Pitch (gizmodo.com) 27
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: One of the most outspoken proponents of the metaverse is struggling to find its place in this hypothetical virtual world. Microsoft has reportedly scrapped plans to make a HoloLens 3 -- what would have been a successor to its current mixed reality headset -- and infighting within the mixed reality division has fueled uncertainty about its future, according to Business Insider. One source told Insider that the decision to abandon plans for a HoloLens 3 would mark the end of the "product as we know it." Multiple sources said Microsoft had agreed to partner with Samsung to develop a new mixed reality device, a decision that has reportedly "inflamed" division within the team. One employee called the partnership a "shit show." Insider spoke to 20 current and former employees at Microsoft who described "confusion and strategic uncertainty."
Some folks within Microsoft believe the company should continue to make hardware while others favor pivoting to a software platform for the metaverse -- that is, a Windows for the digital world. There is also a question of which customer base to target. Microsoft employees are apparently split on creating hardware and software for consumers or continuing their focus on enterprise customers. HoloLens 2, the company's latest AR/VR hardware, is a commercial product that sells for $3,500. Ruben Caballero, a former Apple executive who was hired in 2020 to join the mixed reality and AI division, reportedly wants to shift focus to consumers and the metaverse. Others within the team believe they should continue selling to businesses, and even fulfill military contracts.
LinkedIn profiles show that at least 25 Microsoft employees working on mixed reality left to join Meta last year alone, and Wall Street Journal reports the team lost around 100 people in 2021, many of them to Facebook's parent company. The HoloLens team is now uncertain about the long-term goals of the project and whether they will transition to working on a software platform. Disagreement on what to do next has made HoloLens's future unclear, though Microsoft maintains its commitment to the headset and promises to release more products in the future, "Microsoft HoloLens remains a critical part of our plans for emerging categories like mixed reality and the metaverse," said Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw. "We remain committed to HoloLens and future HoloLens development." Despite slow progress, Microsoft has doubled down on augmented and virtual reality in recent months, claiming its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will provide the "building blocks for the metaverse." Microsoft's mixed-reality plans now appear to be hanging by a thread, and its most ambitious project yet is on the brink of collapse, just as talk about the metaverse -- the future it was meant to help create -- reaches a fever pitch.
Some folks within Microsoft believe the company should continue to make hardware while others favor pivoting to a software platform for the metaverse -- that is, a Windows for the digital world. There is also a question of which customer base to target. Microsoft employees are apparently split on creating hardware and software for consumers or continuing their focus on enterprise customers. HoloLens 2, the company's latest AR/VR hardware, is a commercial product that sells for $3,500. Ruben Caballero, a former Apple executive who was hired in 2020 to join the mixed reality and AI division, reportedly wants to shift focus to consumers and the metaverse. Others within the team believe they should continue selling to businesses, and even fulfill military contracts.
LinkedIn profiles show that at least 25 Microsoft employees working on mixed reality left to join Meta last year alone, and Wall Street Journal reports the team lost around 100 people in 2021, many of them to Facebook's parent company. The HoloLens team is now uncertain about the long-term goals of the project and whether they will transition to working on a software platform. Disagreement on what to do next has made HoloLens's future unclear, though Microsoft maintains its commitment to the headset and promises to release more products in the future, "Microsoft HoloLens remains a critical part of our plans for emerging categories like mixed reality and the metaverse," said Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw. "We remain committed to HoloLens and future HoloLens development." Despite slow progress, Microsoft has doubled down on augmented and virtual reality in recent months, claiming its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will provide the "building blocks for the metaverse." Microsoft's mixed-reality plans now appear to be hanging by a thread, and its most ambitious project yet is on the brink of collapse, just as talk about the metaverse -- the future it was meant to help create -- reaches a fever pitch.
If this is the peak of metaverse hype (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If this is the peak of metaverse hype (Score:5, Informative)
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If you do happen to invent a time machine, can you scrap Facebook entirely instead? That would mean Meta never existed and Oculus would not have been bought by one of the worst company on the Internet.
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"Also the metaverse sucks complete ass."
There's an app for that.
https://www.cnet.com/news/kiss... [cnet.com]
Hardware doesn't exist (Score:3)
The hardware for a mainstream usable metaverse doesn't exist. The headset needs to have no noticeable space in-between pixels and be at least 8K per eye. Anything less makes the experience terrible for anyone who cares about visual fidelity. Current headsets are at least 5 to 10 years away from achieving that. Nobody has any clue of how to make a 8K per eye display with zero noticeable gap between pixels.
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Judging by the fact that the market has shifted to lossy audio, lossy images and lossy videos, I think you miss the fact that "anyone who cares about visual fidelity" is going to be in the single digit percentage.
And when you take into account the price increase for both the headset itself and the rest of the hardware that you woul
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Selling well by what standard? Compared to what? VR headsets sold worldwide about 10 million last year. Game consoles sold 60 million. TVs .. 250 million. Mobile phones 1.5 billion. A good VR headset should be able to sell at least as well as TVs. Heck they should be able to replace laptops. A good VR headset would be able to give a movie theater experience.
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Why would the sales need to be compared to TV sales? Shouldn't it need to be compared to game consoles?
Everybody needs a mobile phone these days, and those sales probably include low-end and perhaps even dumb flip phones. Not a good comparison at all. And nobody needs a TV anymore. Game consoles are entertainment luxury, but so are VR/AR headsets, which is why I think you should compare the sales between the two.
According to this website [statista.com], VR headset sales reached about 6.1 million in 2021. That's still 10%
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Selling well by what standard? Compared to what? VR headsets sold worldwide about 10 million last year. Game consoles sold 60 million. TVs .. 250 million. Mobile phones 1.5 billion. A good VR headset should be able to sell at least as well as TVs. Heck they should be able to replace laptops. A good VR headset would be able to give a movie theater experience.
Why would you compare VR sales to TV sales, when the latter has been engrained into our society for nearly a century? When I first saw your figures that VR sales were over 15% of game console sales, I thought that was tremendous. I never realized the VR market was doing so well. In 2000 DVD sales were just over 20% of VHS sales, and by 2002 DVD sales had overtaken VHS.
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Selling very well depends on the potential market, not imaginary numbers or futile comparisons with other products or sectors. And going by monetary value is not a good metric, because it counts money instead of counting actual users.
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Selling very well depends on the potential market, not imaginary numbers or futile comparisons..
exactly, and by that it has done dismally, just a tiny fraction of the gaming market, hell even PSVR is less than 5% of the PS install base.
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Judging by the fact that the market has shifted to lossy audio, lossy images and lossy videos, I think you miss the fact that "anyone who cares about visual fidelity" is going to be in the single digit percentage.
Agreed. It's strange to impose this condition on the initial iteration of a product. Just compare the first pocket phones to today's budget Android phones. No, let's even go forward to the Nokia flip phones that were fashionable when the original Matrix was released. Maybe FB should just take a page from the Nintento playbook. Make the hardware just good enough, but make the software a joy to use.
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Judging by the fact that the market has shifted to lossy audio, lossy images and lossy videos, I think you miss the fact that "anyone who cares about visual fidelity" is going to be in the single digit percentage.
"shifted to"? TV has always been lossy video. And double blind listening tests show no statistical difference between 192k MP3 and WAV: people literally can't tell.
With that said, most people just don't give a fuck. I might be able to hear 128K MP3, but I just don't care, so your point is entirely
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Re: Hardware doesn't exist (Score:2)
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The biggest problem with headsets is that nobody can focus
on a screen that is 3 or 4 cm from their eyes. As a result,
they use a magnifying lens that only focuses on the center
of the screen, meaning that you can't really scan around the
scene just by moving your eyes. Instead, the only way to
scan a scene is by swinging your head around like you were
looking through binoculars. This inevitably leads to motion
sickness.
I can't see any solution for this, other than having to wear
contact lenses when you are using t
Paging Sir Toppam Hat... (Score:2)
"Zuckerberg, you have caused confusion and delay!"
Nadella wants new internet, next Silverlight? (Score:2)
One of the scarier quotes [msn.com] is "To me, just being great at game building gives us the permission to build this next platform, which is essentially the next internet: the embodied presence."
He doesn't mention the W3C anywhere in this.
I've used the Hololens 1 & 2 (Score:2)
It's amazing. there is definitely a future for this product, but it takes some vision and getting consumers used to the idea. Apple is releasing theirs later this year... and AR isn't about "the metaverse" it's about being able to interact with the world around you in an enhanced way... I'm simply dumbfounded that businesses can't see the enormous profit potential here.