14 DAY TRIAL // While the Apple Watch is currently the number one smartwatch in the world, there’s no doubt there’s still enough room for competition.
And given the demand for smartwatches is on the rise, it makes sense for other tech giants to look at this market and look into their options when it comes to the development of such devices.
Facebook’s parent company Meta has long been looking into the smartwatch world, with the firm actually preparing several ambitious projects that were supposed to launch as killers of the Apple Watch.
While for many people this was something that sounded impossible, Meta was very committed to bringing its smartwatches to the market as soon as possible. The feature lineup was intriguing, to say the least. Two of these smartwatches, for instance, were expected to come with built-in cameras, therefore allowing for video calls without the need for a smartphone.
Goodbye, Facebook smartwatches!
And while these smartwatches do sound exciting, the world will never get a chance to see them live. This is because Meta has decided to drop both of them, along with Portal video-calling smart displays as it’s conducting new restructuring within the company.
Reuters is reporting that Meta plans to cut no more, no less than 11,000 jobs, and as a result, several important projects are being impacted, including the two smartwatches. As it turns out, one of them was still in its early days, but the work on the second already reached the middle phase of the development phase. At least one smartwatch was expected to go live at some point in 2023.
Needless to say, Meta has remained tight-lipped on its plans related to smartwatches, but there’s a good chance we won’t be seeing a Facebook-branded device on our wrists too soon.