“When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it. It could be as soon as we say ‘yes,’ and it could be as long as a ‘very long time.'”
- Microsoft's Alex Kipman
Microsoft will launch HoloLens when it's good and ready, thanks to unpleasant lessons learned by the boom and bust of the Kinect. The device sold 10 million units in its first two quarters, but ultimately ended up being completely sidelined this generation.
That comes from Microsoft's Alex Kipman, who won an award at Microsoft for "outstanding technical leadership" on the Kinect project. He's much more circumspect about the HoloLens.
That's because launching the Kinect "was not a pleasant experience," Kipman said. "It was just not ready to go sell 10 million units in 60 days, which is what it did."
peaking to reporters today at the TED conference, as reported by Re/code, Kipman said that the company will hold back the HoloLens from a consumer launch despite the fact that it's essentially ready to go, for one important reason:
“If a consumer bought it today, they would have 12 things to do with it. And they would say ‘Cool, I bought a $3,000 product that I can do 12 things with and now it is collecting dust.'”
Microsoft is still taking applications for the "Development Edition" of the new device, which costs $3,000. You can learn more about the capabilities of HoloLens by reading our hands-on report from last year.