Microsoft HoloLens Is Available to Software Developers

Microsoft’s HoloLens is taking the next big step toward putting the augmented reality headgear in consumer hands.

Starting Monday, application developers will start receiving invitations to buy the Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition. The $3,000 device will only be available for now in the United States and Canada, and will start shipping on March 30.

The Development Edition headset will provide up to three hours of active use on a battery charge (and up to two weeks in standby mode). It will weigh 579 grams.

Microsoft unveiled HoloLens one year ago at a preview event for the Windows 10 operating system. The device allows wearers to see digital images projected into the real world. Those images can even be pinned to real objects, so users could, for instance, fix the family calendar on a refrigerator and even watch movies on a wall, no TV necessary. With gestures and voice commands, users can create and manipulate the digital holograms.

The developer kit is a significant milestone toward bringing HoloLens to consumers. In a blog post announcing the news, Alex Kipman, a technical fellow at Microsoft, offered vaguely that “broad consumer availability is further down the line.”

Before it can roll out the device to the masses, the company needs developers to create applications that consumers will want to use. On Monday, Microsoft released documentation on Monday that developers need to create programs. And it posted tutorials on its website to guide them.

Microsoft is also providing developers several sample “holographic” apps to help them consider possible ways to build their own programs. In a special edition of Skype, for instance, people receiving a call from a HoloLens user will see the holograms the caller sees. In a game called Fragments, players work to solve a crime.

Microsoft has already given some developers access to HoloLens. Shortly after its unveiling, it partnered with Volvo Car Corp. to develop a virtual showroom. And it’s working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to let HoloLens users explore the surface of Mars.