Satya Nadella hints that Microsoft's mind-blowing new product HoloLens is really 5 years away
(AP)
Microsoft execs using HoloLens.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just hinted that it could be five years before people will be able to buy Microsoft's super cool augmented reality glasses, HoloLens, as an actual product.
When asked about it during an interview at Salesforce's customer conference Dreamforce, he said HoloLens is "really a five-year journey."
However, Microsoft has promised that it will be getting versions of it out to developers in 2016 and Nadella confirmed that promise.
HoloLens is arguably the most exciting new device the company is working on. It superimposes computer-generated images on top of the real world, viewed through glasses, so you can do things like set up an entire Minecraft world in your living room. It is so cool that just seeing an on-stage demo of it makes you want it. If you ever get a chance to try one, you'll want it even more.
Microsoft originally said that HoloLens will work with Windows 10, and its timeline for developers made it sound like the product was imminent.
But Nadella, who says he uses the prototype glasses regularly ("I put it on and roam around my house and have these conversations"), realizes they are still a few years away.
And that makes sense. When Microsoft showed it off at their developer's conference in April, it was amazing, but not at all ready. Everything from putting it on to doing the very scripted demos with it required help.
He also says that Microsoft will gear HoloLens first towards businesses because businesses have a clear need for this device. Microsoft's has been showing how architects could use it for designing buildings, for instance.
That remark also likely means that HoloLens will be too pricey for a consumer device at first. A high price tag was one of the downfalls of Google Glass that sent it back to the drawing board to become a business device.
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