Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at a media briefing at the company’s campus in Redmond, Washington, on May 20, 2024.
Chona Kasinger | Bloomberg | beautiful images
Microsoft will lay off some mixed reality employees, a spokesperson told CNBC on Monday. Although the cuts will affect the division that makes the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset, Microsoft still plans to continue selling the device.
The cuts come a year after the software maker said it would make changes to its hardware product line as part of a 10,000-employee layoff, including some employees. in the field of mixed reality. In the following months, Microsoft discontinued several keyboard models, cause disappointment for some dedicated customers.
“Earlier today, we announced a restructuring of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality organization,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We remain fully committed to the Department of Defense’s IVAS program and will continue to provide innovative technology to support our warfighters. Additionally, we will continue to invest in W365 to reaching the broader Mixed Reality hardware ecosystem. We will continue to sell HoloLens 2 while supporting existing HoloLens 2 customers and partners.”
Microsoft hasn’t had major success with HoloLens since its introduction in 2015, but the US Department of Defense has allowed contract to the company about a modified HoloLens called the Integrated Visual Enhancement System. But soldiers using the device faced nausea and other conditions, Bloomberg report. Tests show an updated model that looks promising.
But since then, Microsoft and its highly valued tech rivals have poured billions of dollars into commercializing artificial intelligence. Microsoft has been racing to deploy it Nvidia graphics processing units so everyone can use OpenAI’s popular Copilot and ChatGPT chatbots powered by Microsoft. Advanced AI features in Microsoft 365 productivity apps can write memos, draft presentations, and summarize meetings.
In December, Microsoft continued to reduce investments in augmented and virtual reality, which block out the world around it, as it deprecated Windows Mixed Reality, which includes tools for running apps on head-mounted displays.
The spokesperson said Microsoft will continue to sell the HoloLens 2 headset released in 2019 but did not say there would be a new model. Insider reported in 2022 that the company had canceled the third edition.
Apple has launched its own augmented reality headset, Professional visionin January.
Microsoft continues to support a feature called Mesh that allows people wearing headphones to participate in three-way Teams video calls with colleagues. At the Microsoft Ignite conference in Seattle in November, CEO Satya Nadella said the company is “reimagining the way employees work together and connect using any device, whether it’s a PC, HoloLens or Meta Investigate.”
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