If the Hololens could be brought down to a price point where the Pokemon Go crowd could use it, it would be a success for that alone.
How good does AR need to be to do HyperReality?[1] Not much better than the HoloLens. More field of view would be needed. The ability to draw dark would be nice, but isn't essential for that, because it's explicitly a bright overlay on the world.
How good does AR need to be to do HyperReality?[1] Not much better than the HoloLens
You're underestimating the problem significantly. Read the link I posted previously because I lay it out there in detail. (I don't get paid or referrals or anything if you read it, it's just that I already wrote it all out there and don't want to do it again). FOV and draw dark are far from trivial issues, not to even mention content and geolocalization/georectification.
The VR headsets, on the other hand, are still about as clunky as they were in the 1990s. The head tracking is much better, and the resolution is a little better. They're still too heavy, too bulky, badly balanced, and need cables.
What about Facebook and Google? They aren't hardware companies. As a content producer, I don't trust them to be a good technology partner for consumer products.
And who exactly would that be? In terms of HMD shipments Microsoft is the only one doing anything serious with AR and even the Hololens form factor, FOV, PPD, battery etc... are nowhere near ready for mainstream. I can only think of one "well funded" AR company and they aren't doing so hot. That's not to denigrate my brothers over at Meta, Avegant and others who are working hard on HMD and who we love.
In sum total there has been just south of $5B of public investments or acquisitions into the AR development market since about 2014. Basically nothing when you consider what has to go into making the AR ecosystem work.
In fact I don't know if people really understand what it's going to take to make consumer AR huge, which is why I wrote this handy guide[1].
My take is that Apple has the best shot because it bought Metaio (at the time the largest AR company in the world) for pennies a long time ago and absorbed all of the knowledge they had been building since 2003.
The trick is whether Apple has figured out how to do a sleek, wide FOV HUD with SLAM, quality 3D rendering and a decent battery life - likely as an attachment to the iPhone.
[1] https://virtualrealitypop.com/heres-what-it-s-going-to-take-...