macOS can operate in a Microsoft environment / ecosystem, but won't integrate to the level of MS Windows. That's a big advantage, and I think the reason most business / enterprises prefer Windows.
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Microsoft Discontinuing Mixed Reality HoloLens 2 Headset
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But things like that Army contract are why Microsoft is not going away.
What you're describing is more Google.
If you're a big enough enterprise, you can pay Microsoft enough money to guarantee they will not just quit on you. Not so with Google.
For consumer products, there simply is no one trustworthy anymore. Apple is about as close as it gets. None of them actually care about the end user anymore. Again, Apple comes about as close as anyone.
It will integrate, but what it's integrating with is Windows Server and other enterprise Microsoft products because Apple doesn't even offer competing products in that area. They don't want the enterprise business which is core to Microsoft. They are perfectly happy being used by the CEO and IT department. That'll keep them around.
What solution is that exactly? Nobody is buying Apple's hardware either and people are returning them. Apple's hardware isn't exactly anywhere near ready. At least with Microsoft, there were cases of hospitals and military use (although mostly for show).
AR will fail as long as they keep giving us hardware that has to be tethered, has terrible battery life and costs more than people make in a month. On top of it, it has no use at this current stage. AR is the same gimmick as 3D TVs. Apple didn't find any solution. Their hardware will fail the same way. I'd be surprised if they ever make a 2nd Vision Pro.
But off its back something better is created.
And honestly I would buy a zune if they made them right now.
You know, people said the same thing when the AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and iPhone launched?
Like I said, I don’t know if AR will be the next big thing, but there are two options: you can either make the best passthrough experience possible, like the Vision Pro, or go for transparent lenses, like HoloLens or Orion. Transparent lenses seem farther off than people initially though and Meta even shelved the Orion project lenses tech. To make them work well, you’d need dark indoor environments, and it would cost around 10k to achieve a good field of view and brightness.
Microsoft has once again shown that they don’t know how to break into a new category. HoloLens was also pitched at Xbox events during its launch, and they promised gaming content like Minecraft and other titles.
Right now, the Vision Pro is just the first step toward creating an AR operating system, and Apple knows was not feasible to launch it with a low-budget device for everyone. They need to understand where AR is heading and polish the OS before it goes mainstream.
It's really not. It's only just beginning.
Mobiles were bricks that can only make a call. Now they are supercomputers in your pocket.
Ironically you seem to have a lack of Vision.
You mean this Orion they announce last week?
https://about.meta.com/realitylabs/orion/
Problem is it's currently 10-50K
Yep, this one! They announced that they'll have to find another technology to make this work, like everyone else has been doing for the last 10 years. They went all-in on silicon carbide, but now they're realizing that this tech is a dead end.
I use mine for work. 3d animation and Sculpting. I've seen some collaborative stuff others are working onthat would melt your mind. Sports stuff, Courtside seats, Live football on your table top, with multi screens all around and some stuff I am under NDA.
It's definitely a rolling update device and at some point they will have a pair of glasses like the Meta Orion but at Retina resolution and an M7 chip or whatever or likely linked to an iPhone for processing.
Link to this? Wasn't my take on it - It's not a dead end just all way too expensive now.
It's not that Apple isn't interested in the enterprise business. I think they lack the tools and ecosystem to compete effectively in this market.
I think the head of WMR (Alex Kipman) turning out to be a huge creep also impacted the way Microsoft viewed this venture. Had he been a non-problematic leader, I assume Microsoft would have continued investing in this product line at least a little while longer.
But between losing the "visionary" heading up the project, and then losing most of that team's talent to Apple and Meta, I assume there was little way (or reason) to keep it going in a meaningful way.
That should have forced a change of leadership (and it should have forced it sooner than it did) but that's not a reason to kill the entire product line or change how the product is viewed. There are plenty of capable mixed reality folk out there there who should have been able to keep it alive.
Companies don't invest in people, they invest in ideas. Kipman's behavior may have killed the project before launch if he was the only champion for it, but once it was clear what they had then it's an HR problem, not an engineering or business problem.
Which could circularly also be due to lack of interest. They discontinued Xserve and the server version of Mac OS X many years ago. They do have a business website, but it's mostly focused on MDM as far as I can tell. It reminds me of their approach to games. They aren't really comfortable in the desktop gaming market because they are so focused on mobile.
They do of course make a good laptop but then there's Windows to deal with which is what the original comment was alluding to, I think. Macs are still a little oddball there.
They definitely seem to make plenty of money selling high end workstations and managed iPads and iPhones, but for client computers and servers and back-end, they don't seem to focus on that very much.
MS never intended this to be a consumer device. From launch it was aimed at engineering, medical and similar commercial/government sectors. IIRC, it wasn’t even possible to purchase one as an individual consumer.
Now that you mention it, I recall something like that for the original HoloLens. I remember trying one out at work when it first came out (govt. contractor). Didn’t keep up with version 2 enough to know it was still enterprise only. I stand corrected.
The verge has a nice article about it:
Hands-on with Orion, Meta’s first pair of AR glasses
Meta’s AR glasses are an impressive tease of what Mark Zuckerberg thinks will replace the smartphone.
www.theverge.com
"As Meta’s executives retell it, the decision to shelve Orion mostly came down to the device’s astronomical cost to build, which is in the ballpark of $10,000 per unit. Most of that cost is due to how difficult and expensive it is to reliably manufacture the silicon carbide lenses. When it started designing Orion, Meta expected the material to become more commonly used across the industry and therefore cheaper, but that didn’t happen. "
Microsoft is not the barometer to judge that by, I am just saying! Were you one of the buyers of a brown Zune?
I have tried the Apple Vision Pro and while it is a nice headset I really did not feel that there was enough of a reason to pay $3,500 for the headset. As a Cybersecurity professional I can see the benefit of these devices when working in an insecure area to prevent people from shoulder surfing and the idea of having a larger display for a portable computer. I do think that this category of device is not ready for mass deployment.
Microsoft is planning to discontinue its mixed reality HoloLens 2 headsets, according to a report from UploadVR. Production on the HoloLens 2 is ending, and sales will cease when stock runs out.
Security updates will be provided until December 31, 2027, but after that point, Microsoft plans to end software support for the HoloLens 2.
Microsoft was one of the first companies to delve into mixed reality technology, and it introduced the original HoloLens in 2016, following up with the HoloLens 2 in 2019. The HoloLens headsets have always been expensive and Microsoft has targeted them to enterprise customers rather than the general public.
At the current time, Microsoft does not appear to have plans for another HoloLens headset. There were rumors of a version three back in 2022, but work was reportedly canceled due to a lack of focus and internal hardware development challenges. Microsoft has also been downsizing its mixed reality team in 2023 and 2024.
Microsoft does apparently plan to continue supporting its HoloLens IVAS, which stands for integrated visual augmentation system. It is an AR headset that Microsoft is creating for the U.S. Army, and it is set to be tested in early 2025 to determine its feasibility for full-scale production.
As Microsoft has been winding down its work on the HoloLens, it has partnered with Meta to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming and its Office apps to the Quest headsets, and it is also working on Windows 11 integration with the Quest.
Apple's Vision Pro headset has been marketed to both consumers and enterprise customers unlike the HoloLens, but it currently shares some of the same shortcomings, such as a high price tag. Apple is not yet ready to abandon mixed reality, and there is another version of the Vision Pro in the works. A second AR/VR headset could come as soon as 2025.
Article Link: Microsoft Discontinuing Mixed Reality HoloLens 2 Headset
I had a brown Zune and it worked well. I actually had the second version of the Zune as well and it worked well as well.
I used Microsoft's mobile software since the first Handheld PC with Windows CE 1.0. It was better at synchronizing with Windows than any other platform. Where Microsoft went wrong with Windows CE/Mobile/Phone was that they just did not have the vision that Steve Jobs had with the iPhone. A single touch screen device to allow interaction with user's data from a connected portable computer. That was the true end of Windows Phone. Microsoft has been working on the tablet concept for longer than Apple, yet Apple developed a better tablet computer than Microsoft. Microsoft vision is to force the desktop metaphor on all devices and that simply does not work.
I'm my experience, I don't see macOS more reliable or stable compared to Windows. Just make sure Windows runs in high quality or certified hardware.
Apple have been doing the same as Microsoft in recent releases of iPadOS. IMO Apple is a better tablet while the Surface Pro is a better laptop / desktop replacement.