The commercial viability of Microsoft’s proprietary augmented / mixed reality Hololens headset has come into question following comments by an executive about the sales of the device.
Speaking to The Inquirer, HoloLens commercial lead Roger Walkden revealed that reveal the sales for Hololens are only in the thousands after almost a year of availability.
Walkden defended the results, saying “We’re not trying to sell hundreds of thousands or millions or anything, it’s expensive, and it’s not in huge numbers. So we’re happy with the level of sales that we’ve got – I can’t tell you anything about the numbers, but it’s in thousands, not hundreds of thousands, and that’s fine. That’s all we need.”
The Microsoft HoloLens became available for preorder in October, with the Development Edition ($4,369) and Commercial Suite ($7,269) to start shipping in late November for Australian customers.
Walkden’s comments highlight the gulf of difference between the often-compared AR and VR industries when it comes to consumer support.
Analysts expect the VR industry to see dedicated headsets in 20 million homes by 2020.
In comparison, AR-driven software has proved itself profitable in the last year but hardware adoption remains slow – likely due to the higher price, limited availability and lack of developer support.
“Just remember this is version one, and there will be future versions,” said Walkden.
