Tech Data has struck a deal to distribute Microsoft’s holographic mixed reality headset HoloLens 2 to its B2B enterprise partners across Europe.
In September 2019, Tech Data rival Ingram Micro and Microsoft signed a “phased approach” deal to market and sell HoloLens 2, starting in North America and select areas of the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.
Tech Data will offer HoloLens 2 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland.
HoloLens 2 offers users an immersive experience, enabling increased precision on complex physical tasks, remote collaboration using holograms, and a secure ecosystem combining intelligent edge technology and cloud applications.
Analyst house IDC predicts that European AR (augmented reality)/VR (virtual reality) spending will grow to a total value of $20.9 billion by the end by 2025, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 69.9%.
To help its partners capitalise on this opportunity and accelerate HoloLens 2 adoption among their customer base, Tech Data is building a range of market-ready AR/VR solutions, which combine the HoloLens 2 platform hardware, software, accessories and services with its end-to-end edge-to-cloud portfolio. These are aimed at “outcome-focused” use cases in verticals such as healthcare, construction, engineering and telecoms.
“HoloLens 2 harnesses mixed reality, intelligent edge and cloud technology to help people across diverse industries to work better, safer and more collaboratively,” said Luc Van Huystee, vice president for mobility, consumer electronics and mixed reality solutions for Europe at Tech Data. “It also offers our partners an opportunity to engage with the growth opportunity presented by the arrival of the metaverse.”
He added: “As we support its adoption in the region, we will look to leverage our strengths as an end-to-end solutions aggregator, combining HoloLens 2 with complementary hardware, software and service offerings from our extensive line card. This will make it easier and faster for our partners to go to market with complex industry-specific solutions.”
Mariano Mailos, senior product marketing manager at Microsoft HoloLens, said: “We welcome Tech Data as a distributor of HoloLens 2 across the EMEA region. We look forward to working together to deliver even greater value to Tech Data’s customers by helping them unlock the power of the fourth wave of computing: mixed reality.”
