Microsoft will hold a press event at Mobile World Congress, likely about the HoloLens

By Sean Endicott
published

Mobile World Congress could reveal more information about Microsoft's HoloLens.

HoloLens
HoloLens (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft sent out invites for a press event at Mobile World Congress.
  • The event might be about the HoloLens as it's hosted by Julia White and Alex Kipman.
  • The event will be held on Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 5pm CET.

Microsoft sent out invitations for a press event at Mobile World Congress next month. The event will occur on Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 5pm CET. The Verge's Tom Warren tweeted out an image of the invitation, including the fact that CVP of Microsoft Azure Julia White and Technical Fellow Alex Kipman will host it.

The invitation is generally short on details about what the press event will cover, but it appears to be about the HoloLens, as pointed out by Warren. Alex Kipman has presented the HoloLens at several major conferences, so his participation in the upcoming Mobile World Congress suggests that Microsoft's HoloLens will be covered.

Kipman's vision for the future includes a world in which the HoloLens replaces screens like monitors and phones.

The HoloLens has improved dramatically over the last few years. When we went hands-on with the HoloLens at Build 2019, we noted how it "takes everything that made the original great and turns it up to 11." IT features a new carbon-fiber body, extra padding, eye tracking, and an improved field of view.

It will be interesting to see what Microsoft has in store for the HoloLens and what else they'll discuss at Mobile World Congress.

Holographic computing

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Microsoft HoloLens 2

HoloLens, but better

HoloLens 2 takes everything that made the original great and turns it up to 11. With a new carbon-fiber body, extra padding, eye tracking, and a wider field of view, the headset should have no problem finding success among developers and firstline workers.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

9 Comments
  • Still hoping for a consumer version....
  • Consumer Hololens, please.
  • Probably not but it would be nice if it was about the next gen WMR. It would coincide with news about the next gen Samsung Odyssey we saw earlier in the week that possible has more than cameras. I know we don't even know that it will be a WMR device but we can always hope.
  • Hololens 2 has lost its windows of opportunity. After CES2020, it is clear, fingers and hand tracking for both VR and soon MR is now democratized and available through headsets that are less than 500$, 1/7 price of Hololens 2. These headsets have SDK more demonstrated than that of hololens 2. It is unfortunate but the truth is by having a more demonstrated SDK among alternative options than the hololens 2, hololens 2 is no longer of priority to me..whatever the price point.
  • I mean more democratized instead of more demonstrated... sorry
  • The communities are working with companies providing alternative headsets with more democratized SDK to develop alternative open source solutions that are agnostic to cloud solutions and the commercial SDK restricted by hololens 2/Azure combinations.
  • The hololens 2 enterprise focus and the miss opportunity for consumer option provide many different startups to fill this gap with headsets that allow consumer developers to hack creative solutions and test them using consumer headsets. 2020 will be the year that Accelerate VR with hand and perhaps soon full body tracking.. MR with real environment background is no longer attractive in terms of creative possibilities.
  • WMR platform headset is more and more abandoned due to lack of hand tracking SDK provided by competitors. Almost every necessary 3D fully open sourced initiative by Microsoft has been systematically put on self destruction path.. A puzzle that totally makes no sense to me... 3D is the future and every effort involving open source framework attempted by Microsoft has been systematically and inevitably put on self inflicting & self destructive path. This could be the archiles that could soon severely damage Microsoft as all paths to 3D technology provided by Microsoft is almost short term without mid to long term strategic 100% business profit driven.
  • We launched the two Voyager spacecraft in the late 1970's in less than two years from the discovery of a favorable planetary alignment using the bleeding edge of technology at the time. Microsoft has been talking about/beta testing the Hololens for 5 years. It seems to me Microsoft needs tighter deadlines for product development. I lost interest three years ago. It seems their process is: 1. Reveal really mind blowing tech concepts.
    2. Develop the tech at a snail's pace.
    3. Release it when it's 3/4 of the way there.
    4. Get overtaken by others who finish their products.
    5. Abandon the product blaming the public for not seeing the vision.