
Microsoft was leading the world in AR; now it’s at risk of being left behind - nthuser
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/microsoft-was-leading-the-world-in-ar-now-its-at-risk-of-being-left-behind/
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doublerebel
Clickbait. There are far more business applications for headset AR in industry
than smartphone AR. Smartphone AR is just a toy for the near future. Not to
mention Microsoft's SLAM and therefore hologram stability is still the best in
the business.

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ender89
Its like suggesting that the gameboy meant the end of pc gaming just because
everyone liked that pokemon thing so much. The applications are so different
in terms of scope they're not really worth comparing even though they
essentially do the same thing.

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mattnewport
You could just as well ask if anyone wants through the camera AR that Apple
and Google are pushing. Aside from Pokémon Go, which while successful was
hardly a good example of AR tech, I haven't seen anything compelling done with
through the camera AR. Snapchat filters are popular but not exactly a game
changing application it seems to me.

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trothamel
My guess is that Microsoft's bet is less in AR in its own right, and more that
the "phone" \- a form factor that has changed once or twice a decade for the
past 3 decades or so - is due for a form factor change. And they'd like to be
ahead of the curve for once, rather than always catching up.

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ender89
more like ar on a phone is always going to be a gimmick, its way easier to
just interact with the phone in your hand than to try to look through it.
Hololense isn't just augmented reality, its 3d hands free augmented reality.
arkit is just shitty graphics pasted over your shitty camera view

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Joeri
Something that leaves your hands free and does AR is obviously the eventual
form factor for our personal device, but hololens is way too bulky to be that
thing. Maybe if they actually get it down to the size of a pair of lenses ...
but that will take half a century.

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WorldMaker
Half a century seems rather pessimistic. Just thinking of smartphone form
factor changes in the last few years, a lot of small form factor display
technology advances have happened rather rapidly.

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it_learnses
Unless Microsoft can somehow replace the smartphone with their headset. I
personally would much rather use that.

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sharemywin
2 different markets.

Break down the use cases:

1\. 3D Design - no go for phone

2\. immersive room - no go phone

3\. games - phone yes(treasure hut, secret messages, 3d avatars, masks)

4\. annotating 3d objects with notes - cool app

5\. even spacial based apps would be kind awkward with a phone. hold my phone
at the wall to watch a big screen TV.

6\. gesture based manipulation with a phone?

