Microsoft committed to HoloLens 2 and Mixed Reality

On behalf of the Mixed Reality team at Microsoft, I wanted to share some important context and insights on the Mixed Reality program at Microsoft. The intent of this note is to help provide clarity to this community on our commitment to HoloLens 2 and the broader Mixed Reality program.

We continue to produce and support HoloLens 2, inclusive of monthly software updates to ensure our enterprise customers can leverage HoloLens 2 and the supporting platform to complete critical work. We also continue to update Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist to address the needs of those customers. HoloLens and Dynamics 365 are key components of Industrial Metaverse deployments, connecting the benefits of digital transformation to frontline workers in field service, factory operations, and many other use cases. For more information, see our recent blog post highlighting some of the progress on the HoloLens platform and how customers are seeing real-world benefits.

In the case of the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK), we are proud of how this project has accelerated cross-platform mixed reality app development for so many developers over the years. From its inception, we created the MRTK to be cross-platform and open-source to benefit the entire ecosystem and not just HoloLens. We are excited that the open-source approach will enable it to live on, and we hope to see increased contributions from others across the Mixed Reality space. Additionally, Microsoft is committed to maintaining compatibility between MRTK and HoloLens 2, including through continued open-source contributions to MRTK when needed to ensure developers using MRTK can continue to build for and deploy to HoloLens 2.

We are also investing in richer and more immersive collaboration experiences in the metaverse with Microsoft Mesh. We are currently in preview with enterprise early adopters who are providing feedback as we iterate on experiences and offerings. Earlier this month, the World Economic Forum invited global leaders in Davos to experience its Global Collaboration Village, built on Microsoft Mesh with the help of Accenture. And while we’ve made the difficult decision to sunset AltspaceVR, what we’ve learned has helped set a foundation for our shift to Microsoft Mesh, to become a platform that offers the widest opportunity to all involved, including creators, partners, and customers.

Lastly, there is important and exciting work we are doing to support the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program. We recently contracted with the U.S. Army to revise the IVAS product design to address soldier feedback, a testament to our partnership with the government, commitment to the program, and ability to rapidly iterate on product designs to achieve results. IVAS is a great example of technology sharing between commercial products and fit-for-purpose government programs. While HoloLens and IVAS are very different devices, they both build on Microsoft’s long history of developing best-in-class Mixed Reality technologies.

We look forward to sharing additional updates in the future while continuing ongoing collaboration with our customers, partners, and developers to innovate in this critical space.

Continue reading...