Microsoft has officially announced that its HoloLens development kits are shipping today, and a new example project will be available for buyers. Microsoft opened preorders for the $3,000 kits last month to qualified developers in the US and Canada, who will be able to develop and deploy extremely realistic holograms on the self-contained platform. They’ll also be able to play with the Galaxy Explorer Project, which visualizes planets and shows off the HoloLens’ features.
Microsoft HoloLens development kits are shipping today
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Microsoft first announced HoloLens in January of 2015 and offered hands-on demos of the headset at that year’s Build, and it’s been opening up the headset to more and more people since then, sending a unit into space and showing off new augmented reality applications like a Star Wars-esque holographic communicator. We don’t know when a consumer version might be available, but getting developers on board is the first step toward making it a real platform — and Microsoft is already listing quite a few, from companies to universities to government agencies like NASA.
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