Microsoft is opening up pre-orders for HoloLens development edition today. "Broad consumer availability is further down the line," says Microsoft's Alex Kipman, but today developers can start to pre-order the device for $3,000. Microsoft started applications for the development kits back in October, and the company says it will now invite developers to purchase the HoloLens development edition as a result.

HoloLens dev kits will start shipping to the US and Canada on March 30th, allowing developers to start creating games and apps for the headset. Microsoft has revealed the exact hardware specifications for HoloLens today, alongside what's included in the box. Microsoft is bundling seven apps and games on the Hololens for developers, and it's hoping that these basic experiences will encourage developers to create their own apps to really demonstrate what the HoloLens is capable of.

Microsoft's March 30th launch date also coincides with the first day of the company's Build developer conference in San Francisco next month. Build 2016 tickets sold out in less than a minute, despite the lack of any free hardware giveaways this year. We're expecting to hear a lot more about updates to Windows 10, cloud services, and HoloLens apps at Build 2016, and the dev kit timing suggests we'll likely see a lot more HoloLens demos next month.