HoloLens is the latest victim of Microsoft’s hardware struggles

Microsoft’s mixed reality dream is now in the hands of Meta.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

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When I first tried Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, it blew my mind. I played Minecraft on a coffee table, and the virtual explosions made it look like the table really had holes in it. I had to lift the headset off my head to make sure there weren’t real bats flying out of the walls around me. At the time, in 2015, HoloLens was the most intriguing product from Microsoft in years. It felt like an early look at the future beyond smartphones, where everything in the real world was suddenly a canvas for holograms. But like many Microsoft hardware products, it didn’t survive long enough to make that future a reality.

The early demos, which also included a simulation of walking on Mars, were far more impressive than the real HoloLens experience when it shipped a year later. Microsoft used prototype units of the HoloLens for the initial demos to the media, which tethered goggles to a mini computer you had to wear like a lanyard around your neck. Microsoft made testers lock away their smartphone to ensure nobody captured footage of this prototype hardware.

The field of view and immersion on the $3,000 HoloLens that shipped to developers in 2016 wasn’t nearly as impressive as that initial demo of Minecraft. It was an early sign that it was going to take years to bring a truly immersive augmented reality experience into a headset that was lightweight, affordable, and comfortable to use.

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Microsoft’s mixed reality dream is now in the hands of Meta.

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