Microsoft is not the only company moving into the augmented-reality hardware space. Asus, one of the world’s largest computer-hardware manufacturers, revealed that it is building its own HoloLens-style device. This headset “should” launch next year, Asus chief executive Jerry Shen said.
This will make Asus one of the first competitors in a space that analysts predict could generate $150 billion by 2020. “It should be next year when we come out with a product,” said Shen. “We think AR will be very important for people’s lives.”
We’ve heard a lot about the promise of AR over the last year or so and mostly from Microsoft. That company has shown off the HoloLens a number of times, and it has tried to position it as a gaming platform as well as a tool that could change the way people work in nearly all fields.
At the most recent Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show earlier this year in Los Angeles, the Xbox team brought the HoloLens onto stage to show how it could change the game of Minecraft.
The future of AR is probably not in selling hardware. Microsoft stands to make a lot by controlling the platform and app store for any augmented-reality devices. And that could push it to let Asus using HoloLens tech and software for whatever the new product is.