Several customers and partners have asked us about the recent news cycle around Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 and how this news affects Taqtile's plans.
The HoloLens 2 is an important headset for Manifest and we have no plans to stop building and releasing new features for it. In addition to our ongoing commitment to this headset, it is Taqtile’s company policy to provide support for officially supported platforms one year after a manufacturer’s product reaches end of life. In our conversations with Microsoft, they have reinforced their commitment to the HoloLens 2 and have given no indication that they plan to sunset this important headset. In addition, Microsoft has offered to get on a call to answer any questions that our customers may have. Please fill out this form if you would like Taqtile to facilitate a call for you with Microsoft.Â
Is this a good time to invest in Manifest?
We are excited to see new head mounted displays (HMDs) come to market, and we anticipate continued innovation in the HMD market for some time to come. Headsets like the Meta Quest Pro, Magic Leap 2 and the HTC ViveXR Elite represent major leaps forward and we are excited to see more investment in this area. We believe that Manifest presents the best (or only) work instructions solution option for immediate and long-term use.  The superpower of Manifest comes down to 2 fundamental facts:
1. Device Flexibility. Many of our competitors’ solutions are built or optimized for a single device. They only work on the HoloLens or the iPhone or the iPad, etc.  Manifest is fundamentally different. It was imagined, designed, and built to be independent of any device. This was a choice we made to address the fact that every client has a different set of needs, each use case has a unique set of requirements, and different jobs often require different devices. So, we built Manifest to offer flexibility as well as embrace the inevitable change in market as new devices become available. The power of Manifest is not reliant on any individual device. The power of Manifest lies in the data that our customers easily input into the system and in the system’s ability to adapt to the changing landscape of spatially enabled devices.
Important to note that this strategic idea does not mean that Manifest is available today on any/all devices. Taqtile has a rigorous evaluation and testing process as we roll out availability on new devices.  We consider factors like work environment, WCI (worker computer interface), use case and overall experience before deploying manifest on a certain device or family of devices.  Today, Manifest is available on head mounted displays (HoloLens 2, Magic Leap 2), Tablets (iPad), and Desktop (Browser)Â
2. Future Proof. At its core, Manifest is an enterprise level software built to digitize, spatially enable, and share procedures across a workforce. By digitizing procedures through Manifest our customers see immediate benefits. A significant drop in training times, improved time to resolution, a material reduction of errors can be realized in a very short time. Our recommendation to customers is to (1) not let concern over hardware get in the way of seeing significant business value – there are many great options today with more coming in the future and (2) getting procedures into Manifest is the best way to protect your business from the changing hardware environment as we will never be reliant on any individual device and continue to add the best devices for the job.Â
