Meta Abandons Its Portal Smart Displays And Smartwatch Project Following Mass Layoffs
According to Reuters , Meta will cease all development of its smart display and smartwatch startup projects. Company officials told workers — 11,000 people were out of a job after mass layoffs — at a town hall meeting that the portal would cease operations. Meta Portal was sold to consumers, and sales of the device soared during the pandemic when people had to stay at home and work. However, the company changed its strategy in June and decided to sell to the corporation instead.
Data at the time said that despite sales growth, the portal accounted for less than 1% of the global market in 2021. Perhaps it is no longer worth pursuing the consumer segment, and now the company has decided that it is not worth developing the device. first place Andrew Bosworth told staff at the meeting: "It will take so much time and so much investment to get into the corporate sector that it was the wrong way to invest your time and money."
Meta has yet to launch a smartwatch, although there have been reports and leaks about this particular company over the years. We won't see it now unless the Meta decides to revisit it in its developmental years from here on out. Bosworth said the smartwatch team will work on augmented reality glasses for the company, and half of Mater's investment in Reality Labs will go toward AR projects.
In addition to announcing the disappearance of the portal, 54% of those fired were in business functions, while the rest were also reported in technical functions. Teams across the company were affected and high-performing employees were fired. Meta is merging its voice and video calling unit with other messaging groups, officials also said, to form a new division to solve difficult technical problems.
The Reuters report did not say when executives would phase out existing Gateway models and whether they would continue to sell them. There's also no word on when support for existing devices will end, but we've reached out to Meta for more information and will update this post if we hear more.
