Sources: Microsoft, Hololens, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-28/microsoft-wins-480-million-army-battlefield-contract
The Microsoft Hololens in its Development Edition is out of sock on the Microsoft online store. What appears as simple news could have different repercussions and hidden interpretations. Is it possible that the technology giant did not have their demand forecasts right? I doubt. My interpretations to the news are many, of which at least one could be true.
- Microsoft will be discontinuing the Hololens 1, specially that its second Hololens generation "Hololens 2" is expected to hit the market early 2019. However, recent rumors speculates that the launching of Hololens 2 might be delayed until the end of 2019. If the speculations are true, the Development Edition will remains out of stock until then.
- Microsoft is opening up the rental market for the Hololens. When the Development Edition is out of stock, developers can decide to rent the product from a certified dealer until the product is available, instead of buying the Commercial Suite. In both cases, the company is benefiting through its commercial or rental deals.
- It could be that Microsoft is going to discontinue its Hololens line. It could be that the product is not generating revenues as estimated, and accordingly the company could have realized that the projected profits will never come. By discontinuing the technology, Microsoft will be minimizing its losses until a more convenient product is developed. I am putting this speculation out there, simply because two days ago, the Commercial edition became out of stock at the Singapore market. This might be the start of a snowballing pattern.
- Recently Microsoft won a $480 million deal with the US army, to supply them with 100,000 Hololenses. A final speculation would be that they are using all the stocks in hand for their projects.
Please note those are only my personal speculations and interpretations, where any other scenarios are also possible.