Exactly one year ago today, Microsoft began shipping the HoloLens Development Edition in the United States. The company today published a blog post to celebrate the device"s first birthday and to recap its first year.
Over that period of time, over 150 mixed reality apps have been made available in the Windows Store. Some of these include HoloGuide, which helps users to "safely navigate a low-visibility environment", HoloHear, which translates speech to sign language, and Teomirn, an app that teaches users how to play the piano.
The firm has also expanded the availability of the HoloLens Development Edition over the past year. In October, it was made available in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. It was released in Japan in January, and will be coming to China soon.
The last thing that Microsoft highlighted is that Windows Mixed Reality is now built into Windows 10, which the company says makes it "attainable for everyone." In fact, Mixed Reality dev kits are now shipping.
So what can you expect from the year ahead? Microsoft says that it"s going to make some announcements regarding HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality headsets "coexisting, making collaboration across devices magical." On a side note, it"s worth noting that despite Windows Mixed Reality being the software that powers the HoloLens, Microsoft seems to be continuing to refer to HoloLens and Windows Mixed Reality headsets as separate things.
As you might expect, the firm also said that it will be sharing more at its Build 2017 developer conference, which will kick off on May 10.