Microsoft will release the first version of HoloLens within the next year

Microsoft will release “V1” of its HoloLens virtual reality headset sooner rather than later. CEO Satya Nadella said that the first developer version of the hologram-projecting device will come out “within the next year” during a video interview with the BBC this week. He added that V1 will be focused “more around developers and enterprises,” and he noted that HoloLens itself is “a five year journey.” That means that it might be quite some time before you can order a HoloLens on Amazon. Nevertheless, Nadella’s remarks do give us our best sense yet of how and when HoloLens will leave Microsoft’s labs and become a shippable product. Earlier this year, Nadella tempered expectations that HoloLens would be a major gaming product when released. He told ZDNet, “I want us to push a lot more of the enterprise usage … In general Microsoft’s approach will be always this dual-use focus, or this multi-focus. What we can uniquely do is bridge consumer to enterprise. That’s in our DNA.” Nadella built on those comments in this week’s BBC interview, adding that “We will have developer versions of it first and then it will be more commercial use cases and it will evolve.”