Microsoft has officially confirmed it will be halting production and sales of its HoloLens mixed reality headsets.
In a statement to UploadVR, the company said it has ended production of the HoloLens 2 device, the latest model (albeit one released in 2019), with customers only now able to buy new devices while stock lasts.
Microsoft HoloLens 2 will continue to receive “updates to address critical security issues and software regressions” until December 31 2027, the company noted.
Farewell Microsoft HoloLens
The news may come as little surprise, as Microsoft has not been focusing too much attention on HoloLens in recent years, as the company’s focus drifts more towards AI, despite HoloLens 2 users finally getting a Windows 11 software update in April 2023.
The original HoloLens headset, which will see software support end on December 10, 2024, was launched in 2016, with the company promising a new age of augmented and virtual reality experiences.
However initial reception and sales were poor, as was the case for the HoloLens 2, partly due to its $3,500 price tag at launch, which placed it firmly in the range of enterprises only.
This included specialist editions built for the US Department of Defense, with the US Army remaining committed to the wide-scale test of its HoloLens IVAS device in 2025. An initial order of 5,000 headsets, thought to be worth around $373 million, was signed off by Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Douglas Bush in September 2022 following successful field tests.
The company had apparently been considering plans for a HoloLens 3 device, but appeared to quietly drop this following layoffs and financial cutbacks that affected the project’s workers.
The former head of the HoloLens division, Alex Kipman, also departed Microsoft in 2022 following misconduct allegations, with the likes of Meta and Apple making the headset space far more congested.
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