Microsoft Launches Hololens 2 targeting enterprise market

Microsoft has revealed its new $3,500 US Hololens 2 headset, with a focus on comfort that may make it transformative for the enterprise market.

While much of the investment in Virtual Reality tech is coming from the games and experiences market, Augmented Reality has seen a great deal of success in the enterprise market in several sectors. An AR headset allows the user to visualise a virtual object in real 3D space, and this has been transformative for product design, manufacturing, automotive design, and architectural roles.

Investment in AR tech has already started paying off in some industries by drastically reducing the need for physical prototyping and speeding up collaborative design processes. Some companies are even reportedly using it to run virtual holographic meetings with high-profile leaders based in other countries, reducing the cost and disruption of travel between offices for meetings that have traditionally been carried out in person.

It's no surprise then that the newly revealed Hololens 2 focuses on comfort level above other technical factors -- Microsoft says it's three times more comfortable according to surveys it conducted with test users. It seems designed more for periods of extended use as a functional tool in an office or industrial capacity than for gaming or seated experiences. The unit is still self-contained so you can move around the room while using it, and features double the field of view of the previous version.

The initial hype in AR came from the gaming and experience space, with presentations at trade shows showing Minecraft on your table and kids using AR headsets to create virtual toys. As the tech has matured, the reality of its functional limitations and experience of the areas the technology is actually being used in are starting to inform the product's design. The Hololens 2 may finally be the tool that makes the leap to mass-market use, not in people's homes but in their offices.