Windows 10 and HoloLens Odds

Big things are brewing at Microsoft or, rather, big things are virtually brewing at Microsoft.

The elder statesman of the tech industry is set to launch Windows 10 some time this calendar year. This version of Microsoft’s OS will feature a new browser (known only as “Spartan” during development) and, mercifully, signals the end of Internet Explorer. It will also have a Siri-esque helper named “Cortana”.

The most exciting news coming out of the Windows 10 hullabaloo, however, centers on Microsoft’s hologram advancements. Recently, the company has been showcasing how Windows 10 will pair with its new holographic technology, which appears to be a giant leap forward in holo-tech.

Microsoft is developing a “HoloLens” headset that will run on Windows 10. What is the HoloLens? Graham Ruddick described it as “a new wireless holographic headset that will overlap holograms into a user’s vision of their environment.” (The company is also working on a “HoloStudio”, which would allow users to create their own holograms.) The HoloLens is, evidently, blowing people away – even virtual reality-skeptics.

Allow me to reach into the upper cabinetry of your vocabulary and retrieve the words you’re grasping for: holy sh*t! If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, you’ve likely been waiting years for this type of breakthrough.

Of course, people who yearn to live in the pages of sci-fi novels have been burned by big promises before. (We’ve been expecting feasible jet-packs for decades now.) Is this really the year that we move significantly closer to a working, TNG-style holodeck?

By Picard’s Shaved Head, I do hope so!

But hoping won’t make it happen. Only Microsoft’s braintrust can endow us with such splendor. Do they have it in them to release a working HoloLens in 2015?

Below, we take a look at the odds for that, along with various other Windows 10 propositions.

Windows 10 and HoloLens Odds:

Odds Microsoft’s “HoloLens” is available to the public for purchase in 2015: 2/1

Over/under on the cost of Microsoft’s “HoloLens” when it is released: $1,000. (It’s rumored to be “affordable”.)

Which VR Headset will sell more in its first year of full release:

• Microsoft’s HoloLens – 2/1
• Facebook’s Oculus Rift – 1/2

Odds Windows 10 is fully released before July 1: 4/1

Over/under on the cost of Microsoft 10 for new users: $150 o/u

Odds the removal of Internet Explorer from Windows 10 causes mass hysteria: 10,000/1

Odds Cortana and Siri combine forces to destroy us: 1/1

HoloLens Image Courtesy Microsoft Press Gallery