It was one other powerful day for the tech sector yesterday, with Google asserting a brand new spherical of lay-offs, and slashing tons of of roles from a number of divisions.
As reported by The New York Instances, the majority of the cuts had been amongst these engaged on Google Assistant, with the corporate now trying to re-shape the instrument round AI, and cut back some components.
However one other attention-grabbing level of word was this:
“Google mentioned that many of the {hardware} cuts affected a crew engaged on augmented actuality, know-how that mixes the actual world with a digital overlay.”
Whereas Apple and Meta are advancing in the direction of making AR an even bigger focus, with Apple’s first Imaginative and prescient Professional headsets to go on sale from February 2nd, Google’s now seemingly taking a step again.
May that imply that Google has fallen behind within the AR race, and it’s now conceding that the opposite tech giants have outdated it?
Amid difficult market circumstances, the massive gamers are being pressured to make some powerful calls about their future bets, with Snap Inc. additionally reassessing their longer-term plans attributable to impacts within the digital advertisements sector.
However AR does look set to have a giant second, within the very close to future, and as such, it’s attention-grabbing to see Google doubtlessly deprioritizing it, particularly contemplating the alternatives that it might present for discovery merchandise.
Certainly, over the previous couple of years, Google has shared a number of glimpses of its potential worth in an AR future, and the way digital overlays might complement Google’s core Search merchandise.
In 2022, Google even shared an outline of its personal, in-development AR glasses, that are nonetheless seemingly in testing.
Google’s additionally been experimenting with varied new initiatives as a part of its ARCore mission, together with AR video games.
In 2020, Google even partnered with Snapchat for an interactive tackle its ‘12 months in Search’ developments overview, and with all of this, it has appeared like AR can be a logical extension of Google’s varied components, and as such, can be a key focus for the corporate transferring ahead.
The most recent cuts don’t essentially imply that it gained’t be, however it’s attention-grabbing to think about why Google can be scaling again on this space, on the cusp of the following stage of the tech.
Along with the pending Imaginative and prescient Professional launch, which can introduce extra folks to those immersive experiences, Meta’s additionally planning to start actual world testing of its AR glasses prototype this 12 months.
With a lot taking place, it might look like Google ought to be digging in, nevertheless it’s scaling again as an alternative.
Which appears odd, and naturally, there could also be extra to it that we will’t know. Nevertheless it may very well be that Google has determined that AR merely gained’t be as large part of its future plans.
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see the way it all develops, and the way Google appears to be like to combine AR components as they emerge. At one stage, I had speculated that Google may very well be a suitor for Snapchat, and will increase its AR performance by way of acquisition, which might nonetheless be on the playing cards, although given the broader cuts, that does appear unlikely.
Nevertheless it’s attention-grabbing to think about what Google’s focus can be, and the way it will look to construct across the subsequent tech developments.
