Hololens apps will need collaborative editing
Quick intro: in case you've missed it, here's a good showcase from March 30th of the potential Microsoft envisions for Hololens as a platform for professional tools.
(you can also watch the whole keynote video.)
Now to get an idea about how much is Microsoft invested in Hololens, just look how they use perfectly produced video to announce... an update. Young people today, what's wrong with good old .txt update note ?
Anyway, yes, it's worth watching.
Here is how it looks at home if you bought it:
One of the key trends we're seing here is how Microsoft is positioning Hololens as 3D device for the professionals. It makes a lot of sense, but it's also a paradigmatic shift.
So far we've been creating objects, games, buildings, 2D and 3D movies, etc in one constant setup: one person looking at one screen using one keyboard/mouse combination. It's not convenient to be two looking for hours on the same screen (not to mention more than two) and really, really inconvenient to use the same mouse in turn. Clearly not a paradigm that naturally supports real time collaboration, right ?
A platform like Hololens completely changes that. Instead of a screen, you have a space. Instead of one mouse, you have many hands. This is why this setup naturally supports everyone looking at the "document" (whatever is currently edited) and interact simultaneously without being obligated to push the other user(s). While our current setups are single user space, Hololens is a natural real time collaborative space.
Of course for that to happen you need apps that are real time collaboration ready. While Operational Transform has been a working approach for text editing it's simply not suited for complex applications and with partners Autodesk (see that amazing video) or even Dassault System working on HTC Vive, that's precisely what's around the corner.
As you can guess we think our own technology, Flip, can be a key enabler in that domain (you can read our real time collaborative solutions comparison to know why). So yes, you can expect more news on VR/AR tools here in the future 🙂
We want to see this kind of things happen.
