Mixed Reality will not be completely abandoned by Microsoft. While in recent times it could be seen that the company was distancing it from its short-term priorities, a recent statement has highlighted that Mixed Reality continues to be an important element within the military project that the company is carrying out.
This military project, in fact, would be to improve the performance of soldiers on the battlefield by using the various sensors that the glasses incorporate into their system. Obviously, this is something that will not be for commercial use, so if anything is clear, it is that, despite this military function, the market for HoloLens for the general public is no longer a priority for Microsoft.
Military Project with Mixed Reality
As Microsoft has confirmed to Neowin, the company continues to collaborate with the United States Army to develop military-use features in its Mixed Reality technology. The HoloLens, which have been on the market for a few years now, find in this point their main framework for progress, away this time from the commercial use that so many users are eager to see updated.
These devices, referred to as IVAS, Microsoft conceives them as the middle ground of a technology intended halfway between commercial use and government interest use. However, despite that statement, the company is solely focused on government and military use of its Mixed Reality technology.
The competition between Meta and Apple
Mixed Reality, however, is being targeted for all audiences by other companies. An example of this are the Meta Quest 3 launched by Oculus in recent months, which represents the company’s biggest leap in Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality to date. Furthermore, they have managed to do it with a much more competitive selling price than what Apple has proposed with its device.
In the case of the bitten apple, The Apple Vision Pro, which have been positioned as a very premium product, as they are expected to cost more than $3500, although they also promise an unprecedented level of immersion and usability in this type of technology. It has not yet been released, although it is expected to do so in 2024, and there the first reviews will analyze if it is really worth paying such a high price for the Apple device with which they want to revolutionize the sector.
