Meta Abandons Its Portal Smart Displays And Smartwatch Project Following Mass Layoffs

According to Reuters , Meta will stop all development of its smart display and new smartwatch projects. The company's managers told the workers - 11,000 people lost their jobs after the massive layoffs - in a meeting held at the town hall that they would stop work on the portal. Meta sold the portal to consumers, and the device saw a surge in sales at the peak of the pandemic, when people were forced to stay at home and work. However, the company changed its strategy in June and decided to sell the company instead.

Data at the time said that despite revenue growth, the portal accounted for less than 1% of the global market in 2021. It probably wasn't worth pursuing the consumer segment anymore, and now the company decided it wasn't worth it. The device is worth developing. "It took so much time and so much investment to get into the enterprise segment that it was the wrong way to invest time and money," Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth told employees at the meeting.

Meta has yet to release a smartwatch, although there have been reports and leaks about this particular company over the years. Now, unless the Meta decides to revisit its development later in the year, we'll never see it. According to Bosworth, the smartwatch team will now work on the company's augmented reality glasses, and half of Mater's investment in Reality Labs is going towards its AR projects.

In addition to announcing Atari's demise, executives also revealed that 54% of the layoffs were in corporate roles, with the remainder in technology roles. Teams across the company have been affected, and even high-performing employees have been laid off. Meta is merging its voice and video calling unit with other messaging groups, executives also said, forming a new division to solve tough technical problems.

The Reuters report did not say when executives will phase out existing portal models and whether they will continue to sell them. He also didn't say when support for current devices would end, but we've reached out to Meta for more information and will update this post if we hear more.