I don't know what it ended up becoming as I have not used IKEA online since long time, but I remember that the mantra back then was, that they wanted the assembling manual put online (how to put your IKEA furniture together). Back then, 20 some years ago, it was their key mission to provide an easy help with putting the furniture together. They did realize very early on that an online catalogue must be more that just a page with pretty pictures. They wanted to create a universe for each individual product and make it very easy for you to figure out how to put the furniture together. I remember dedicated workshops where we talked about Virtual Reality Headsets, 20 years ago as a tool to help people assembly the IKEA product. Their wet dream was that you pick up a box at your local IKEA store, put on your headset and then you will be guided for dummies through the assembly process. This is 20 years ago.

Today, every time I hear about Microsoft HoloLens I think about these IKEA workshops. The mission for Microsoft HoloLens and the IKEA catalogue is in total alignment. Everything Microsoft wants to do with their headset, IKEA wanted to do with the catalogue 20 years ago. I am confident that there is an Microsoft HoloLens/IKEA working group out there somewhere prototyping this exact thing. Microsoft HoloLens and IKEA catalogue is a very cool combination.