Since Microsoft recently announced its cooperation with Meta, it will not only bring the Microsoft Teams service to the Horizon platform used by the corresponding Quest series devices, but also allow users to use the Xbox Game Pass service within the Horizon platform, which seems to mean that Microsoft will follow the development of the mobile phone market in the past. Model, in the augmented reality market layout, it no longer relies on building hardware itself, but attracts more user groups through software, and uses this to deploy the development of the metaverse market.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft’s HoloLens research and development team has been laid off by more than 100 members in the past two years.
According to former Microsoft employees and LinkedIn data, Microsoft has now reorganized the HoloLens R&D team, laid off more than 100 members, and reduced funding for augmented reality development projects. Before that, there was more news that Microsoft had suspended the development of HoloLens 3 hardware, and even canceled the mixed reality hardware project with Samsung.
With the departure of Alex Kipman, head of HoloLens, from Microsoft in the first half of this year, the HoloLens R&D team has been split into hardware and software. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that software will lead the development of augmented reality applications in the future. , thus highlighting the fact that Microsoft has reduced the proportion of augmented reality hardware R&D.
Microsoft currently entrusts the hardware part of HoloLens to the product director Panos Panay, and the software part is in charge of Microsoft Teams director Jeff Teper, but there is no follow-up product launch plan at present, and Microsoft’s development of augmented reality applications is obviously more than that. Other companies have slowed down a lot, including Meta’s Quest series and Magic Leap’s augmented reality headsets, which have already seized the market, which also makes the market question Microsoft’s approach to the augmented reality market.
However, since Microsoft recently announced its cooperation with Meta, it will not only bring the Microsoft Teams service to the Horizon platform used by the corresponding Quest series devices, but also allow users to use the Xbox Game Pass service within the Horizon platform, which seems to mean that Microsoft will follow the previous mobile phones. The market development model, in the augmented reality market layout, no longer relies on self-built hardware, but attracts more user groups through software, and uses this to develop the metaverse market.