Text/Li Jiashi
Sources revealed that Microsoft has canceled plans to launch Hololens 3 in mid-2021, and even agreed to cooperate with Samsung to develop a new MR device, which undoubtedly annoyed the HoloLens development team.
What is even more speechless is that Microsoft is said to be hesitant to give up its own HoloLens display technology, and Samsung's attitude is that it is best to let Microsoft build its own hardware and software.
A few days ago, some media broke microsoft insiders that Microsoft has canceled the HoloLens 3 plan in the summer of 2021, and the HoloLens hardware project may have come to an end. This news provoked Microsoft's official spokesperson and project leader to rush out and publicly deny it.
HoloLens is Microsoft's VR/AR terminal, born in 2015, is one of the earliest and most representative AR/VR iconic terminals in the industry, and is also an important part of Microsoft's meta-universe strategy. Its direction is related to Microsoft's meta-universe strategy, and will also deeply affect the development of the global meta-universe industry.
The reason why microsoft wants to cut the HoloLens 3 plan quickly fermented in the industry is because the message is detailed and "has a nose and an eye" . The media broke the news that its source of information is Microsoft's internal HoloLens3 project team members, with high credibility, and the content of its description is "logical".
The main content of the explosion is that microsoft is currently divided within the HoloLens project. One is that people like Alex Kipman want to bring HoloLens to the consumer market, but others argue that Microsoft should continue to focus on enterprise and IVAS-like military applications. Second, Microsoft earlier news said that Microsoft's senior management decided to cooperate with Samsung to develop hardware, and this decision further increased internal disagreements about future development. Third, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's attitude seems to be more inclined to positioning software services than to developing hardware herself. Due to the uncertainty of Microsoft's long-term plans, members of the HoloLens team are leaving Microsoft and joining competitors including Meta.
The above three rumors seem to have the logic of "justified". First, it is true that Microsoft's HoloLens is currently positioned in the enterprise market, and has obtained a large order from the military, the enterprise industry market is Microsoft's dominant market, a variety of resources are very convenient to use, and it will be faster than the consumer market, more real money. At the same time, if an equipment product cannot be popular in the consumer market and the ordinary people's market, it is not successful and cannot meet the ideals of a designer, so the person in charge of the project team hopes to bring the project from the enterprise level to the consumer market, which is in line with the logic of conflict. Second, from the perspective of joint development of HoloLens hardware with Samsung, there is nothing wrong with this logic. Samsung has a strong hardware design, manufacturing genes, but also a strong supply chain capabilities, choose to cooperate with Samsung, strong alliance, make a beautiful and light helmet, quickly occupy the market, the same makes sense. Third, Microsoft's current CEO Satya is a software and cloud service background, favoring software and favoring services, positioning Microsoft to provide software and services for virtual reality and metaversity, which is more in line with his identity and thinking habits.
But as soon as the media broke, Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw came out to clarify that the HoloLens project was dead, and further emphasized that holoLens was a key component of Microsoft's plans in emerging areas such as mixed reality and metaversia, and would continue to work on HoloLens and its future development. HoloLens project leader Alex Kipman also said on Twitter: "Don't trust the news seen on the Internet, there were people who said hololens 2 was also canceled." ”
As the saying goes, there is no wind and no waves, the reason why this news has been broken, the author speculates, one may be that There is indeed a certain disagreement within Microsoft about the development direction, positioning, and path of HoloLens, whether it is positioned at the enterprise level or consumer class, or from the enterprise level to the consumer level market, there are differences, after all, there is still a big difference between consumer equipment and enterprise-level products. Whether to do it yourself or to develop it together with Samsung, these two directions, the resources required, and the troops invested are very different. If it is developed with others, it does not need so many troops, and it is understandable whether someone will leave the company. Why there is disagreement at this time slot, because the positioning of HoloLens has risen from the original division level to the strategic level, and the meta-universe strategy has just become Microsoft's most important future strategy, so the level, positioning, direction, and path of the project need to be repositioned.
The second may be that Microsoft has been "hacked" by its opponents. "Black" Microsoft's opponents, with their fingers can be counted, nothing more than those few players who do meta-universes and virtual reality equipment, of which the meta-universe players who have just changed their name are "the most suspicious", because the company bets on the meta-universe, but the financial report just handed over is not ideal, the loss is as high as ten billion US dollars, and it may need to divert the public's attention.
"So can Microsoft do a good job of hardware?" After all, Microsoft lacks hardware genes. "This is another core target for opponents to attack Microsoft. Although the HoloLens has been out of the company for two generations, can the HoloLens3, which is being developed, have the "stunning" effect of the enterprise market and the consumer market? In fact, there is no need to worry about Microsoft's hardware capabilities, the key is to stick to it and get through the climbing period. In fact, in 2012, Microsoft announced its entry into the PC device market, the launch of the two-in-one computer Surface device, everyone is not optimistic, and the first 3 generations are not very ideal, until the Surface4 came out, we finally no longer doubt Microsoft's hardware strength, and now surface out to the 8th generation, has been the high-end fashion brand endorsement of the PC device market, directly called Apple.
The author believes that the metacosm is microsoft's most important strategy in the future, HoloLens is an important part of its metacosmity strategy, Microsoft has just bought blizzard with huge funds, and has laid out various components of the metacosmity strategy in a big way, and Microsoft is not short of money, and there is no reason to give up HoloLens. So what is Microsoft HoloLens missing right now? What Microsoft lacks is a future decision for HoloLens. Shen Xiangyang, former executive vice president of Microsoft Global, once revealed that the most difficult thing in the regular meeting of Microsoft's core leaders every Friday is to discuss and decide "what Microsoft does not do" because Microsoft has too much cash and can do too many things.