Following the decision to cut 11,000 employees, Meta has reportedly killed its smartwatch project and Portal smart displays.
Reuters reports that Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, revealed to employees that the tech giant will wind down its development of Portal and its smartwatch project.
“It was just going to take so long, and take so much investment to get into the enterprise segment, it felt like the wrong way to invest your time and money,” said Bosworth in a statement to Meta employees, according to Reuters.
Meta’s smartwatch development team will shift its focus to augmented reality glasses. On the other hand, Portal has not been a significant revenue generator for the company formerly known as Facebook.
Last week, Meta reduced its workforce by 13 percent or 11,000 Meta employees worldwide. Following the announcement, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, confirmed that it will continue its hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023. Meta has lost $9.4 billion on its metaverse technology in 2022 so far.
Source: Reuters
