HoloLens is not dead, says Microsoft's mixed reality chief

Microsoft has not abandoned development on HoloLens 3, according to the technical fellow who leads the company’s mixed reality division. In a tweet spotted by The Verge, Microsoft’s Alex Kipman told a concerned fan not to believe everything they read online. “HoloLens is doing great and if you search said internet they also said we had cancalled HoloLens2… which last I checked we shipped with success,” he said.

Kipman’s tweet came in response to a report Business Insider published this week claiming the company had recently scrapped plans for what would have been HoloLens 3. Microsoft strongly disputed the outlet’s reporting. “We remain committed to HoloLens and future HoloLens development," Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told Business Insider. He added that the device is a "critical part of [the company's] plans for emerging categories like mixed reality and the metaverse."

Like Shaw, Kipman didn’t directly address the possibility of Microsoft working with Samsung to co-develop a separate mixed reality device, nor did he touch on the staffing issues Microsoft’s mixed reality division has reportedly had to contend with. According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, Kipman’s team has lost approximately 100 people over the last year, with many of those employees defecting to Meta.

Microsoft, however, seems bullish on its metaverse prospects. “We feel very well positioned to be able to catch what I think is essentially the next wave of the internet,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts last month during the company’s Q2 earnings conference.