The Hololens dev kit will be available early next year

Microsoft surprised us all back in January when it showed off the Hololens for the first time. Since then, the company has put a ton of effort in to showing off interesting demos for the device, including ones based around Halo and Minecraft at E3. Now, developers know exactly when they can get their hands on one to start creating apps and use cases for such a device, it obviously won't come cheap though.

The Hololens development kit arrives during the 1st quarter of 2016 for $3000. That might sound like a huge number, but development kits for current generation consoles are also quite expensive. It will still be quite the investment for any serious developers looking to make use of the device.

The Hololens is a completely untethered device, with no need for wires or even a dedicated PC, allowing for completely free movement. Microsoft is already taking developer applications for Hololens units, so those interested can try and get ahead of the crowd before launch next year.

No word on a consumer version of the Hololens just yet, but since the price for the development kit is so high, it could be a while before the device is fully ready for the mass market. All of this was announced at Microsoft's conference today, at which it is also expected to launch Windows 10 for smartphones. We also just learned that Windows 10 has already been installed on 110 million devices.

KitGuru Says: The Hololens is a very interesting device and I imagine quite a few developers will be looking forward to getting their hands on one. It is a big investment though at $3000, so it will likely be a while before we see a consumer version ready at a price the mass market could afford. 

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