Microsoft has confirmed that the HoloLens 2 is discontinued. In a statement to UploadVR, the company acknowledged that customers and partners who want to get their hands on the company's holographic computer should place orders as soon as possible before the stock runs out. In other words, the company no longer manufactures the original and second-generation HoloLens, and there are no signs of a successor.
Despite the end of production, Microsoft will continue supporting the HoloLens 2 with security updates and critical patches for four more years until 2028.
Microsoft announced the HoloLens 2 over five years ago. Alex Kipman, who left Microsoft in 2022, unveiled it on February 24, 2019, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The second-generation HoloLens went on sale in September 2019, and the first customers received their orders later in November.
Like the Apple's VisionPro VR helmet, the HoloLens costs $3,500. It runs a special Windows 10 Holographic edition powered by the Snapdragon 850 processor. When moving from the first to the second generation, Microsoft improved the field of view (it was a major point of criticism in the first-gen HoloLens), made the device more ergonomic, and significantly increased the performance of its Holographic Processing Unit or HPU for better image stability, new hardware-based features, and more.
The HoloLens proved popular among business customers, and even the US Army is testing HoloLens-based IVAS headsets. Interestingly, Microsoft told UploadVR that "it remains fully committed" to its partnership with the US Army. This reassurance confirms the company's statement from December 2023, when Microsoft killed its Windows Mixed Reality Platform and from June 2024, when Microsoft announced layoffs in the Mixed Reality division.
Microsoft was rumored to introduce the third-generation HoloLens with notable hardware upgrades, but the plans were reportedly scrapped due to "confusion and strategic uncertainty" inside the company.
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