Meta pulls the plug on its smartwatch project and Portal
Meta made headlines late last week after it decided to let go of 11,000 employees, even overshadowing Twitter’s mass layoffsnot too long ago. It was only a matter of time before a move like this would also bring about the death of some of the social media giant’sambitious projects. We’re now gaining additional information on this front, courtesy of an extensive report by Reuters.
The wire servicereportsthat Meta is immediately halting development on the Portal smart display, along with its two smartwatches that were never released. The information was disclosed by Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth as part of a town hall meeting for employees who are still working at the company. He elaborated on the decision to halt work on Portal, saying it would “take so long” and “so much investment” getting the device into the enterprise sector, adding that “it felt like the wrong way to invest your time and money.”
As Engadgetpoints out, there was a brief moment at the height of the pandemic when the Portal managed to strike a chord with some people who couldn’t connect with family and friends in person. But as the world reopened, the demand couldn’t hold up, and Meta decided earlier this year to market it directly to businesses rather than individual customers. Data curated byThe Informationin June this year showed that the Portal only had around 1% market share in the global smart display segment. This makes it pretty clear that Meta’s smart display couldn’t hold up to its competitors despite the temporary boost in sales during the pandemic.
Meta has been less transparent about asmartwatch projectthat’s been in the works for a while, but it seems that venture has come to an end, too. Moving forward, the smartwatch team will work on Meta’s augmented reality hardware, Bosworth revealed.
Meta top brass further revealed that 54% of the employees laid off last week were working in business positions while the remaining pink slips went to technology-related positions. As part of the reshuffle, the company will establish a dedicated division tasked with handling complex engineering hurdles.
It’s unclear if the minutes of the internal town hall were meant to become public knowledge though it’s clear that a major internal rejig is underway. The company has bet big onthe metaverseand there are no signs of pivoting away from this endeavor as of yet, even as other ventures are being killed off.
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