Recent rumors suggested that Microsoft's next-generation Hololens 3 mixed reality headset may be dead, but that may no longer be the case. Alex Kipman, the inventor of the HoloLens and a technical fellow at Microsoft, appears to imply that the product was still alive in a tweet.
In short, the saga began when a Business Insider report revealed the internal chaos and uncertainty of the HoloLens team. According to the report, Microsoft is working with Samsung on a next-generation headset, and the HoloLens 3 project was canceled in the middle of last year when that project began. But, according to Kipman, "don't believe everything you read on the Internet," and "HoloLens is doing fantastic."
Don't believe what you read on the internet. #HoloLensis is doing well, and if you look on the internet, you will find that we have been cancelled.#HoloLens2… as far as I know, we have successfully shipped [)-)
— alex kipman (@kipman) February 3, 2022
Similar reports from 2017 suggested that the sequel to the original HoloLens was dead. That was not the case, and just two years later, in 2019, the HoloLens 2 was released, bringing improvements in the field of vision and other features. “If you search the Internet, they also say that we have canceled HoloLens 2, which we successfully tested last time,” Kipman joked.
Microsoft HoloLens 2 headset on a woman's head.
Of course, no one from Microsoft has confirmed that the HoloLens 3 is still in development, but that's a good sign that it is. Prior to the recent saga, rumors suggested that the headset would resemble reading glasses more. However, it's unclear whether this will be a consumer or enterprise product, another source of contention among Microsoft's HoloLens product team. Kipman previously stated that HoloLens technology was not yet ready for consumer use in previous interviews.
As more companies enter the realm of mixed reality, such as Meta and even Apple with their rumored headsets, keeping an eye on the HoloLens becomes more important. Many of the Microsoft employees who worked on the HoloLens team have left the company to work for competitors, but the company has recently recruited key talent. To work on the HoloLens team, it hired Ruben Caballero, a former Apple executive. Caballero was previously responsible for Apple's wireless technology, which included antennas built into iOS devices.