I=3 Meta is losing its third-party augmented reality (AR) developers to Snap
Meta is losing its third-party augmented reality (AR) developers to Snap following its decision to shut down its AR Studio in August, Bloomberg reported.
It’s not the first time that Meta is being blamed for burning bridges with developers.
“We have not made it easy to develop for our platforms,” Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth told developers last month. “And I want you to know that we know that, and we’re very sorry.”
I=4 Meta is said to have closed an internal virtual reality studio and cut costs for outside developers
Meta is reported to have closed one internal virtual reality studio and reduced funding for outside developers, leading to staff cuts and delayed projects, The Information reported citing someone with direct knowledge of the matter.
According to The Information, Monks which develops mixed reality and virtual reality projects for Meta has halved its team of 100 people.
Similarly, Atlas V, which makes games such as “Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway” has halved its team dedicated for Meta content.
A Meta spokesperson said the company will spend more on developer funding this year than last year but could not provide additional details.
Meta wants to shift more of the design of components such as displays and lenses to its Chinese contract manufacturer, Goertek, in order to focus on the more profitable areas, the Information reported citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the sources, Meta hopes that Goertek and other manufactures could start developing mixed reality headsets as original design manufacturers by 2030.
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth denied the Information report which said the company wants to shift the designs of mixed reality headsets to Goertek.
“Someone is pushing the design rumor hard to multiple outlets, and that aspect remains false. We continue to design our headsets in house as we have and have no plans to change that. We always partner with our manufacturers to some degree but nothing material is changing there,” he wrote.
I=6 Competition is growing in the VR/AR space, Meta CTO says
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said competition is growing in the VR/AR space.
“We are leading in these spaces, and the competition is coming for us," he said. " There’s real stakes now,” Bosworth added, “If we slip, then we potentially lose our leadership position.”
I=6 Meta brings Reality Labs closer to its main business as its importance grows
Meta reorganizes its Reality Labs to make it a business priority, a leaked memo sent to employees shows.
Brent Harris, VP of Meta’s wearables business group, Brett Vogel, VP of product marketing and Metaverse and the product marketing team will now be overseen by Meta’s Chief Marketing Officer, Alex Shultz.
Colan Sewell, Reality Labs’s VP and chief revenue officer as well as the sales team will now report to Justin Osofsky, Meta’s head of partnerships and business development while VP of analytics, Alessio Sanfilippo will now report to Bosworth.
“2024 was a pivotal year for Reality Labs and positioned us for greatness in 2025. RLBG was a major part of setting us up for the future. The team beat nearly all of last year’s aggressive sales and user goals, growing RL sales>40% YoY overall. We are seeing massive sales growth in wearables and the Quest brand has never been stronger,” Chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth wrote.
“Keeping those functions integrated with Reality Labs makes a lot less sense when our products are now such a major driver of overall company brand and sentiment.”
I=5 Meta sold 1 million Ray-Ban smart glasses last year
Mark Zuckerberg told employees that the company sold more than 1 million Ray-Ban smart glasses last year, The Verge reported.
“I think one of the questions for us is, are we going to go from 1 million this year to 2 million? Are we going to go from 1 million to 5 million?” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg said competition hasn’t caught up yet.
“We basically invented the category and our competitors haven’t really shown up yet,” Zuckerberg said during the meeting. “I think we’ll probably start seeing some of that maybe a little later this year, maybe next year, but we just have this wide open field right now to run and basically introduce as many people as possible to Meta AI glasses and we should take that opportunity.”
I=8 Meta’s next big bet is AI-powered humanoid robots
Meta’s next big bet is AI-powered humanoid robots, with an initial focus on household chores and an end-goal of making underlying AI, sensors and software for robots.
According to people familiar with the matter, Meta is forming a team inside Reality Labs to conduct the work.
The team, will be led by Marc Whitten who most recently led General Motor’s Cruise self-driving car division.
The team is expected to hire 100 engineers this year.
“We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs,” Andrew Bosworth wrote in a memo seen by Bloomberg.
I=4 Meta plans to introduce its first smart glasses with a screen by the end of the year
Meta plans to introduce its first smart glasses with a screen by the end of the year, with a starting price of over $1,000, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Code-named Hypernova, the smart glasses will feature hand-gesture controls and a screen for displaying images and photos.