Microsoft Announces the End of Windows Mixed Reality

extremetech.com

10 points·lostmsu··6 comments

The form factor just isn't there yet for anything outside entertainment or niche business usage.

Until it's significantly improved the tech is going to be stuck with the early adopter market. Most people would rather not wear a headset for hours on end.

My kid got a meta quest 3 today, it's a huge comfort improvement over 2 and it's still nowhere close to something I'd ever want to wear all day but, even if they could get it down to the form factor of standard glasses, I wouldn't want it. But to occasionally jump in on specific tasks that benefit from V/AR even the meta quest 3 would be fine (if it didn't ruin my hair). Doing every conference call through it would be dumb, audio only or 2D is usually good enough, preferred even. There's a good place for this tech, it's just never going to be an all-day sucker.

I think Apple is on to something! It is more present in the environment, it’s slimmer to the face, it doesn’t ruin your hair, it’s high resolution and powerful enough for serious work.

The weight though.. but it will get lighter.

Has anyone done a tally of all the projects Microsoft has cancelled/ended/failed at over the years?

On the one hand, we’d all love to be part of a culture of experimentation, on the other, it really seems like they whiff a lot. Lots of dead code and e-waste.

You may just be multiplying their life time by business size, both of which are substantial.

There is https://killedbymicrosoft.info/, though it seems to be missing a lot of older examples like MSN Explorer. They also don't seem to include product renames like the Google one does.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com