Last August, Microsoft announced that it would be bringing its Windows Holographic shell to "mainstream PCs" as part of its next major update to Windows 10. It followed the company"s announcement in June that it was opening up Windows Holographic to all manufacturers, promising that new devices running its mixed reality shell were "months away".
When it announced the Windows 10 Creators Update in October, mixed reality was again presented as a core element of its offering, and Microsoft said that its hardware partners would be offering headsets priced as low as $299. But while the Creators Update is now rolling out to PCs, buyers still aren"t able to purchase those headsets.
At CES in January, we got a look at some of those headsets - or head-mounted displays (HMDs) - on the way from the likes of Dell, Lenovo, HP, and others, including Acer, which today hinted that its products won"t be available to buy anytime soon.
Acer is the manufacturer of the Windows Mixed Reality Development Edition headset, following the rebranding of the Windows Holographic platform in March. Acer said at an event today that it is "the first one shipping the product; we are shipping in thousands" - but the current version of its HMD is, at its name suggests, only shipping to developers to help them create new mixed reality experiences powered by Microsoft"s operating system.
Acer said that its "Windows Mixed Reality headsets for consumers and commercial customers [will] ship later this year", although it didn"t offer any indication of just how soon these products will actually go on sale, or at exactly what price.
Lenovo said in January that its Windows Mixed Reality HMD will be priced at "less than $400", but like Acer, it didn"t provide an exact launch date, only stating that it will launch its headset "later this year".