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Microsoft has confirmed that HoloLens 2 has been discontinued, and there’s no known successor.
The company told UploadVR that production had ended, and that this was the last chance for customers to buy the mixed reality headset. Bug and security fixes would continue until the end of 2027. The initial 2016 HoloLens was only produced for two years and loses software support on December 10th.
Although the regular HoloLens 2 is being discontinued, Microsoft said it was still “fully committed” to the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) it’s testing with the US Army. The military is planning a company-scale test in early 2025, and might enter mass production by late 2025 if the technology meets requirements.
The absence of a known follow-up isn’t surprising given the recent turbulent history of Microsoft’s mixed reality team. Key leader Alex Kipman left the company in 2022 following harassment allegations, and multiple layoff rounds thinned the division’s ranks in the following two years. The resources aren’t necessarily there to build a HoloLens 3, and Business Insider believes it was cancelled in 2022 due to company “uncertainty.”
HoloLens was supposed to usher in mixed reality computing for enterprise, and to a degree it did. Companies could collaborate on virtual product models, while doctors could pull up 3D medical data as they talked to patients. Microsoft effectively controlled the space.
The industry has changed, however. and HoloLens has fallen behind. Multiple companies have mixed reality headsets that have more computing power and rely on more affordable (if not always more practical) passthrough cameras, most notably the Apple Vision Pro and Meta’s just-discontinued Quest Pro.
That’s not including long-term efforts like Meta’s Orion holographic glasses. If Meta reaches its goals, it will have a mixed reality device that looks and weighs just like conventional glasses, but with full-fledged spatial computing.
This isn’t necessarily a problem for Microsoft. It’s partnering with Meta, and has already introduced Office web apps and Xbox game streaming on Quest headsets. When Meta unveiled the Quest 3S at Connect 2024, it also showed a feature that will automatically create a virtual desktop when you look at a Windows 11 PC, much like the Mac extension with the Vision Pro.
Still, it’s the end of an era. With HoloLens 2 discontinued and no known devices on the roadmap, Microsoft is bowing out of mixed reality hardware for the general public. It won’t control platforms, and will instead provide the apps and services that you run.
