Microsoft Launches HoloLens to More Countries, How Oculus Rift Differs [infographic]

Microsoft HoloLens launches in UK, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland - Facebook Oculus Rift vs. Microsoft HoloLens

 

Microsoft HoloLens is now available for buyers in Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, New Zealand and United Kingdom.

The Hololens, which was unveiled at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington on January 21, 2015, is the Windows maker’s serious attempt at what the company calls mixed reality, or MR. It attempts to bring 3D holographic content to our living rooms, allowing us to interact with digital content.

What’s the difference between Microsoft’s HoloLens and Facebook’s Oculus Rift?

Microsoft HoloLens launches in UK, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland - Facebook Oculus Rift vs. Microsoft HoloLens

To put it simply, Oculus Rift promises to immerse you in a world of virtual reality where you can watch your favorite movies, play the games you love and experience something that is much better than what your regular TV or your laptop can offer. Its purpose is to improve your visual experience.

But Microsoft’s HoloLens takes things up a notch by allowing you to interact with digital content in way that we have only seen in movies until now. It essentially mixes virtual reality and augmented reality to create mixed reality. That’s too many realities for some! To put it simply, HoloLens will let you interact with the content, while VR headsets will allow you to have an immersive viewing experience.

At $3000, the HoloLens is five times more expensive that its VR cousin the Oculus Rift, which retails at $600. At that price point, the HoloLens is not likely to see a high rate of adoption among individual users.

Here’s a very interesting infographic that I found on Mark It Write, reproduced here with due credit to the copyright owners:

Microsoft HoloLens launches in UK, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland - Facebook Oculus Rift vs. Microsoft HoloLens

On the other hand, Microsoft first launched the product to the commercial segment, for enterprise companies in manufacturing, engineering and related fields so they could visualize and interact with digital content to make their work easier. There are many more use cases for enterprise companies than for individual users at this point.

But we have to keep in mind that HoloLens is at a very early stage of its evolution. Remember Google Glass that was launched with much fanfare but no one talks about it anymore? In contrast, Microsoft is taking the silent route to test the application’s usage, letting developers work on the technology behind it, and seeing how far it can developed. If things go well, they will be looking to bring the price point down to expand its usage to the masses.

For now, expanding into a few more developed countries seems like a good way start.

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