Microsoft offers researchers $500K and HoloLens development kits to make holographic computing useful
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
Since Microsoft unveiled Windows Holographic and the HoloLens headset in January 2015, the strategy has been to widen access step by step: a $3,000 dev kit put hardware in developers' hands, an emulator let teams build and test AR apps without the headset, and Microsoft then opened Windows Holographic to partners including Intel, AMD, HTC, and Acer to seed a device ecosystem.
The research-grant program extends that same playbook upstream — rather than waiting for a killer app to emerge from paying developers, Microsoft is paying researchers directly to find one, targeting exactly the gap between an impressive demo and holographic computing that is actually useful.
First-order effects
- Researchers who would have paid the $3,000 dev-kit price now get hardware and up to $500K in funding, shifting HoloLens experiments into universities and labs that couldn't justify the kit cost on speculation alone.
Second-order effects
- A research-funded app catalog gives Intel, AMD, HTC, Acer, and the other Windows Holographic partners a reason to build compatible devices — software scarcity was the biggest risk to the open-platform bet.
Third-order effects
- If grants succeed where marketplace incentives haven't, expect platform owners across AR/VR to treat subsidized research as standard go-to-market infrastructure, with Microsoft positioned as the de facto standards-setter for holographic computing the way it opened Holographic to third-party hardware.
The trend: AR platforms are buying their way past the content chicken-and-egg problem — Microsoft subsidizing researchers to make HoloLens useful is the same move as opening Windows Holographic to hardware partners.