Meta, for those Facebook times, has been working on several smart watch projects for a long time which, together with smart glasses, intended to significantly expand the company’s hardware catalog, which currently consists of Portal devices and Oculus virtual reality browsers. An interesting bet, but one that has met with some resistance due to the company’s conflicted history with regard to security and privacy.

We learned about this project in February of last year, and a few months later, a lot of information was leaked about the first device that will in principle reach the market. The leak coincided with Facebook’s name change to Meta, a time when many analysts thought the “punishment” for ostracizing the social network within the company itself, could benefit other products and projects, such as wearable devices. Of course, the absolute focus fell on Metaverse, but even so, the prospects for hardware projects were good.

However, a year later, Meta’s overcommitment to the Metaverse took a huge toll on the technology. And it’s because accounts don’t come out, Metaverse keeps attracting users, and there are many voices that have been voicing their reservations all this time. Investors logically reacted strongly to this situation, and as we told you a few weeks ago, Meta collapsed on the stock exchange. And there are more curves to come, as Meta herself admits your 2023 Metaverse numbers will be even worse than this year. It’s not that it’s going to rain, it’s that it’s likely to drizzle.

Impact? The Twitter layoffs have been a topic of conversation for several days now (and not just because of the sheer volume of them, but because of how poorly they were managed), but the truth is that Meta is also facing massive layoffs, around 13% of its workforce, around 11,000 workers . And as Reuters reported, the company’s hardware projects will feel the blow especially hard. Specifically, according to a meeting with employees quoted by the news agency, Meta closes the Portal business unit and cancels work on smartwatch projects.

There were two projects that were in development when it came to smartwatches, one was still in the early stages, but also another leaked in October last year that was already in a much more advanced design stage. originally aimed to hit the market in 2022, but later moved to 2023. Now, after exiting that business unit, both clocks will eventually remain in the inkwelland we don’t even expect to restore the Portal devices.

However, Meta keeps the Metaverse at the epicenter of his plans. Whether it’s a hit or a flop, we won’t know for sure until the future. But at the moment, it seems like too bold a decision that could end up with the company if it doesn’t manage to get its books straight. Something for which, paradoxically, he cannot count on the Metaverse for his plans, at least in the short term.