Microsoft today announced they’re releasing a developer-focused HoloLens 2 bundle that aims to make the AR headset and software tools more accessible to developers and businesses.

Aptly named the HoloLens 2 Development Edition, Microsoft is pitching the bundle staring at $99 per month/per user.

The bundle includes the HoloLens 2 hardware, $500.00 in Azure credits for use with the company’s Azure mixed reality services, and a three-month free trial of Unity Pro and the Unity PiXYZ Plugin for CAD data.

The standard HoloLens 2 offering unveiled at MWC this year is still in its pre-order phase, however having the ability to pay a monthly fee versus plonking down the full $3,500 for the headset alone may be more palatable for businesses and developers looking to get their feet wet with the device.

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Microsoft sees their HoloLens 2 Development Edition as a way to catalyze what it calls the “third wave of computing,” something it hopes will help them engage three times as many AR developers as it did this past year—more than 20,000 developers, by Microsoft’s reckoning.

Broadening its goal to reach more developers, Microsoft will also be hosting more meetups, programs, events and hacks, such as today’s Mixed Reality Dev Days event.

You can learn more about the HoloLens 2 Development Edition hololens.com to learn more about the HoloLens 2 Development Edition and sign up to stay updated about latest news, mixed reality toolkits, code samples and open source projects.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • oompah

    Its the best
    in design , engineering & technology
    with optical waveguide tech Wow
    (something which we only dreamed about as theoretical)
    FOV ? should improve over time
    I expect a better FOV in next iteration
    Few suggestions to MS:
    1. Use foveated rendering to reduce processing power overhead and its another benefit is that pixels at periphery can be made bigger/fewer so less waveguided pixels to be created & users get larger FOV w/o perceptible loss in quality of image.
    2. In order to implement foveated rendering , use eye tracking to find the center of image & start plotting pixels in circular/spiral fashion from it. The natural eye also works similar (thats why in times of crisis/panic people get tunnel vision).
    3. Use ray tracing/path tracing with say crytek’s new technology which is claimed to have little overhead. But my advice is to use this only on cloud based game streaming to which ppl will flock to becuz cloud can be in ur total control to improve, upgrade & perform. For this intels new ray tracing GPU can be used .

    • sebrk

      Alright people. Pack it toghether. This guy solved everything.

      • oompah

        Matrix is coming before we die
        & u’ll earn social credit
        with every movement of the eye
        I didnt meant it to rhyme
        but who am I to decide

    • beestee

      I don’t see a need for foveated rendering with this tech yet. It seems like it is the waveguide tech that is holding back the FOV, not the processing power.

    • Octo

      It has eyetracking so foveated rendering should be a software issue.

  • More devs? At $3500?? It is a ridiculous price, imho… the dev edition should cost less than the enterprise one

  • Jeremy Deats

    This is interesting. $99/month ($1200/year) to lease the equipment.