Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a news conference at the company’s campus in Redmond, Washington, May 20, 2024.
Chona Kasinger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft will lay off some employees who work on mixed reality, a spokesperson told CNBC on Monday. Although the cuts will affect the department that contributes to the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset, Microsoft plans to continue selling the device.
The reduction comes a year after the software company announced it would make changes to its hardware lineup as part of a round of layoffs that affected 10,000 employees, including some working in mixed reality. Over the next few months, Microsoft discontinued several keyboard models, causing frustration among 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 cutting-edge technology to support our Soldiers. Additionally, we will continue to invest in W365 to reach 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 much success with the HoloLens since its introduction in 2015, but the U.S. Department of Defense awarded the company a contract for a modified HoloLens called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System. But soldiers who used the devices suffered from nausea and other problems, Bloomberg reported. Testing suggested an updated model looked promising.
But since then, Microsoft and its highly regarded tech peers have invested billions in commercializing artificial intelligence. Microsoft rushed to deploy Nvidia graphics processing units so people can use a Copilot chatbot and OpenAI’s popular Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. Premium AI features in Microsoft 365 productivity apps help write memos, write presentations, and summarize meetings.
In December, Microsoft further reduced its investments in augmented reality and virtual reality, which block out the surrounding world, by abandoning Windows Mixed Reality, which included tools for running applications on head-mounted displays.
The spokesperson said Microsoft would continue to sell the HoloLens 2 headset released in 2019, but did not indicate a new model was coming. Insider reported in 2022 that the company had canceled a third version.
Apple released its own augmented reality headset, the Vision Pro, in January.
Microsoft continues to support a feature called Mesh that allows people wearing headsets to participate in three-dimensional Teams video calls with colleagues. At the Microsoft Ignite conference in Seattle in November, CEO Satya Nadella said the company was “reinventing how employees come together and connect using any device, whether it’s from their PC, HoloLens or Meta Quest.”
WATCH: The headset wars: how Apple Vision Pro compares to the competition
cnbc
