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Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

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Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#11

Post by iLoveOncall »

xigency wrote: post #6
sys_64738 wrote: post #5

Every business will can projects in their portfolio when belt tightening. VR and its multitude of derivative just isn't a core competency of M$. If anybody is to win this space then it'll be Apple IMO.

It’s not like cutting other products will make the core offerings better. I’m sure they could double the Windows 11 team size and the start menu search would still take 10+ seconds to find the app I’m searching for. At least mixed reality was interesting.

That's because Windows is far from being their core offering.

Office is where the money is for Microsoft.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#13

Post by 8note »

freeone3000 wrote: post #4
32gbsd wrote: post #2

Sad to see that hype not come to reality.

This is an actual physical product you can buy today: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buy

I wear glasses and I wouldn't wear that.

And I definitely wouldn't wear it for hours on end -- that's gonna give me a neck injury

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#14

Post by fragmede »

kabes wrote: post #7
freeone3000 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an actual physical product you can buy today: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buy

Yes. But the hype hasn't come a reality

There are limited opportunities to use the aware, this is true. This is most especially due to cost - $3,500 for the base model Hololense. But it works and is actually really cool. It's like the original Microsoft surface product - the table sized tablet thingy, not the laptop form factor - it was too expensive and never saw wide deployment, but it was very cool if you actually got a chance to use it. It's priced out of consumer use, which makes it invisible to most. I have no idea how many people have learned to be airplane de-icers thru Hololense-based training programs, if it's all a marketing gimmick, or if there's a new generation of them trained in VR. It certainly sounds cool, but if they were really making money, it doesn't make sense for Microsoft too have cancelled the project.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#15

Post by baby »

sys_64738 wrote: post #5

Every business will can projects in their portfolio when belt tightening. VR and its multitude of derivative just isn't a core competency of M$. If anybody is to win this space then it'll be Apple IMO.

You mean Meta right? Otherwise it just sounds like you haven’t been following the field.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#16

Post by bitwize »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #11
xigency wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like cutting other products will make the core offerings better. I’m sure they could double the Windows 11 team size and the start menu search would still take 10+ seconds to find the app I’m searching for. At least mixed reality was interesting.

That's because Windows is far from being their core offering. Office is where the money is for Microsoft.

Azure is where the money is now.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#18

Post by esskay »

baby wrote: post #15
sys_64738 wrote: post #5

Every business will can projects in their portfolio when belt tightening. VR and its multitude of derivative just isn't a core competency of M$. If anybody is to win this space then it'll be Apple IMO.

You mean Meta right? Otherwise it just sounds like you haven’t been following the field.

Not op, and not to be rude but honestly sounds like you maybe haven't. Meta's bleeding right now. Their attempt at Metaverse is failing hard.

Meanwhile we've got Apple coming along with thier extremely efficient in-house chip architecture thats about to release a lightweight headset with performance that blows away anything Meta has, not to mention an existing ecosystem that it will slot right into.

Outside of Meta everybody knows the 'Metaverse' (i.e in the form as 'Meta' themselves describe it) is a truely awful concept that clearly is not gaining popularity or any kind of desire from the general public.

Based on the leaks we pretty much know that Apples already cracked full body tracking, eye tracking, has a SIGNIFICANTLY lighter design and higher battery life. Hardware wise it'll make everything Metas produced look pretty archaic.

Then it comes to software and app ecosystem. I don't think theres even a debate to be had here. Meta vs Apple would be laughably one sided.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#19

Post by bitwize »

fragmede wrote: post #10
sys_64738 wrote: post #5

Every business will can projects in their portfolio when belt tightening. VR and its multitude of derivative just isn't a core competency of M$. If anybody is to win this space then it'll be Apple IMO.

Apple's spend in this area is totally unknown, other than everybody expects them to. To contrast, Meta has been spending so much in this area that they've bet the company on it. It's anybody's game right now, but Meta already has launched products and iterated on them.

Apple is built different as a tech company. They will keep everything a secret more closely guarded than the nuclear codes, then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product that leaves everything else in the dust, just like they did with the iPhone. A Quest 2 with an Apple Silicon CPU would, alone, be a game changer. There's probably some advanced head and eye tracking and SLAM AI in there too that makes Meta's stuff look like that clunky Virtuality gear from the 90s in comparison. Probably a thinner, lighter form factor.

You think I'm exaggerating, but Apple has the best engineering talent in the world, a commitment to deliver revolutionary products, and first bite at the supply-chain, er, tomato. Betting against them is a fool's move, no one else will be able to even TOUCH them.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#20

Post by voxic11 »

8note wrote: post #13
freeone3000 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an actual physical product you can buy today: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buy

I wear glasses and I wouldn't wear that. And I definitely wouldn't wear it for hours on end -- that's gonna give me a neck injury

It has 1/3 the mass of common motorcycle helmets. Its not heavy, just large.
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