Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality glasses will be available to developers within a year

Holo

(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The countdown is on for the Microsoft product that's generating more buzz than the company has seen in quite some time.

Microsoft’s augmented reality HoloLens headset will be available for developers within the next year, CEO Satya Nadella says.

Nadella provided the first timeline for the gadget’s release in a recent interview with the BBC, noting that HoloLens is on a “five year journey” in which it will be initially be released for developers and then for business users, before it becomes a consumer device.

Microsoft first unveiled HoloLens in January, wowing reporters with demonstrations that allowed users of the headset to see and manipulate incredibly realistic holographic images. Microsoft has run demos in which HoloLens can be used for everything from architecture to video games and video conferencing.

But the company has until now provided no timeframe for when the futuristic gadget would be released.

Based on Nadella’s comments, it sounds like a consumer version of the device is still at least a few years away. But developers, and potentially even businesses, should get early versions of the device soon.

Here’s what Nadella said in the interview:

We will have developer versions of it first, and then it will be more commercial use cases and then it will evolve.

This is a five year journey.

We are looking forward to getting a V1 out which is more around developers and enterprises and you know it’s in the Windows 10 time frame which means that it is within the next year.

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