Microsoft started shipping its HoloLens headsets to developers a year ago today, and the company is celebrating its first milestone. While HoloLens is technically available to anyone with $3,000, Microsoft isn’t aiming this first iteration at consumers. Still, software developers have managed to create 150 apps for the headset over the past year.
Some unique apps include HoloHear, an app designed to provide real-time speech-to-sign-language for the deaf, and a piano teaching app (Teomirn) that overlays holograms on top of the keys of a real piano to help you learn. To mark a year of HoloLens, Microsoft is also gearing up for what’s next.
Former chief marketing officer at Oculus, Liz Hamren, is joining Microsoft to head up marketing for its HoloLens and mixed reality efforts. Hamren will report directly to Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Windows and devices. In an internal email, Mehdi says Microsoft is creating a dedicated mixed reality marketing team, which suggests the company is taking bigger efforts to push HoloLens and its upcoming Windows Mixed Reality headsets to consumers.
Microsoft’s partners are expected to release Windows Mixed Reality headsets in time for the holidays later this year, and Mehdi says the company is “set up to have an acceleration of our mixed reality initiative” as a result. Here’s Mehdi’s full internal memo: