I don't think Tesla Roadster created too much demand for anything. In the two years it was on sale in Australia, I think they sold 4. EV-1 was never meant to be a success, it was simply GM's response to California's absurd effort to legislate the future into existence before the technology was ready. And for the record, in the early 1900's there were as many electric cars as petrol-powered ones, it's not anything new at all.
When did Microsoft have a touchscreen tablet computer before Surface? If you are talking about the original Surface, now called PixelSense, it was never a computer, simply a ginormous display that had to be connected to a PC. It was also 40 grand when they launched it. I don't think they ever expected too many people to buy it but we have one at work.
Microsoft have very clearly shown HoloLens's "capabilities and what it can be used for". It is a Windows 10 PC, capable of running any universal app without the need to specifically develop for the platform. If you don't know what Windows PCs are capable of by now, I don't think Microsoft's explaining it is going to help.
If Microsoft used Age of Ultron, Minority Report, Ghost in the Shell, or whatever for marketing material; it would create unrealistic expectations as what the Hololens can do or who it is for.
Why? HoloLens is more than capable of doing all of those kinds of things, without fancy glass screens or stupid gloves. If anything, using those films as examples would be underselling HoloLens. In fact, those films show just where HoloLens is really such a compelling device. Where they imagined we'd still need to define parameters to make it all work - glass screens and gloves to track finger/hand movement, HoloLens has shown us that it can dispense with all of that because it can "see" the environment and literally interact with it.
Humans are curious monkeys and I reckon that will be key to HoloLens's success. Imagine the first time you see someone using one in the wild, maybe sitting on the train or bus on the way to work. It won't be like the first time you saw an iPad and you could discreetly peer over the user's shoulder to see what he was doing. With HoloLens you'll have someone who can see stuff that nobody else can. It will be so frustrating for everyone else that a lot of people will just
HAVE to have one of their own so they can see what's going on. Until they have competition it will drive sales, no matter the price.