HoloLens is Heading to Japan

HoloLens is Heading to Japan

Microsoft announced another major milestone in the distribution of its mixed reality headset: HoloLens is now available for purchase in Japan.

“I am excited to welcome another country to join us on our holographic journey,” Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman writes in a post to the Windows Devices blog. It is my pleasure to welcome Japan to the HoloLens family!”

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This week’s announcement follows an October expansion of HoloLens availability to Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in October.

As with other markets, Developers and businesses in Japan will be able to choose between the HoloLens Development Edition and the Microsoft HoloLens Commercial Suite. Pre-orders begin on December 2, and Microsoft expects to ship the devices to buyers in Japan in early 2017.

And as with other markets, HoloLens is available exclusively through the Microsoft Store in Japan.

“We continue to be inspired by the work developers and customers are doing with HoloLens across the globe,” Mr. Kipman explains. “Japan is no different. One of the companies already innovating with HoloLens is Japan Airlines. By using HoloLens, Japan Airlines has developed two proof-of-concept programs to provide supplemental training for engine mechanics, and for flight crew trainees who want to be promoted to co-pilot status. We are very excited to have them on this holographic journey with us.”

HoloLens Development Edition costs $3000 in the US, while the Microsoft HoloLens Commercial Suite will set you back $5000.

 

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Conversation 9 comments

  • 22

    29 November, 2016 - 8:33 am

    <p>If Microsoft wants Hololens to take off in Japan, they need to partner with Nintendo or one of the card game makers to bring AR based Pokemon, Yughio, Magic(I know WoWC) or the like to bring those games to life with multiplayer battles. Along with the productivity capabilities of Windows, gaming, as well as fixing the existing issues of pricing, FoV, cpu, battery, memory, etc that have been discussed ad nauseam for the consumer edition could make Hololens a must have, but they must bring the game developers to the platform in an experience that cannot be built on any other platform.&nbsp; The fundamentals needed to do this are there, they just need someone to spearhead the right partnerships and push the vision.</p>

    • 5234

      29 November, 2016 - 9:21 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27726">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/drewidian">drewidian</a><a href="#27726">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Consumers are all but dead to Microsoft. &nbsp;Once Satay Nutella gets a nod from the board to kill Xbox, that’s the end of it.</p>
      <p>Hololens won’t be a consumer platform.</p>

      • 5027

        29 November, 2016 - 10:31 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#27742">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Waethorn">Waethorn</a><a href="#27742">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>Well no, Hololens will not be a plattform, since it is hardware, but Windows Holographic is a plattform, for consumers as well since it soon will be built into Windows 10. How many will use it, time will tell, but it is still a plattform for consumers as well, though Hololens is not</p>

        • 5767

          29 November, 2016 - 12:54 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#27758">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/JudaZuk">JudaZuk</a><a href="#27758">:</a></em></blockquote>
          <p>Ding ding ding. People don’t get that Hololens is just one device on the Windows Holographic platform. The first but not the last.</p>

    • 4327

      29 November, 2016 - 9:30 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27726">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/drewidian">drewidian</a><a href="#27726">:</a>&nbsp;I think that they are really going after the industrial market instead of the consumer market. That to me is where the staying power is — If they do it right , it will "take off" in that market and become in the future basis of much of manufacturing and services. Entertainment will come if it proves to be viable. It is fast proving itself to be very viable in the Enterprise.&nbsp;</em></blockquote>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 5510

    29 November, 2016 - 10:36 am

    <p>I have a question regarding the use of the image above in relation to HoloLens. Exactly, why would a person use HoloLens to interact with (what appears to be) a globe? Why don’t you just buy a globe? Wouldn’t it be much cheaper?</p>

    • 1584

      29 November, 2016 - 1:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27760">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Bats">Bats</a><a href="#27760">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Well, then you’d have to find a place to store that damn globe; and all the other things you’d have to buy instead of just creating the virtual item out of thin air.</p>

    • 5554

      29 November, 2016 - 7:37 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27760">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Bats">Bats</a><a href="#27760">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Not to mention, with the terrible FOV of the HoloLens that MS doesn’t like to talk about, you’d only see a slice of the globe.</p>

  • 5554

    29 November, 2016 - 7:35 pm

    <p>HoloLens = DOA, just like Kinect</p>

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