As Reuters reported, Meta is completely discontinuing the sales of any new Portal devices and canceling plans to make a Meta-branded smartwatch.
Meta’s Portal devices are similar to Amazon’s Echo lineup, which serve the smart home needs of people. While they’re fairly liked, Meta decides to dump them anyway, probably due to the ongoing economic crisis, just like every other company.
Meta Portal and Smartwatches
Originally launched in 2018, Meta’s Portal devices are a smart-home lineup similar to Amazon Echo or Google Home that offer video calls through Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. It doesn’t need any subscription but an active internet connection and a connected Facebook or WhatsApp account to work on.
The initial reviews of Portal devices have been great, but gradually people cited privacy reasons and stopped buying as earlier. Yet, Meta continued to launch more Portal models, with the last one being Portal Go – launched late last year.
And as everyone seemed disinterested in their offerings, Meta has stopped selling any new Portal devices – reports Reuters. Citing some internal reports, Reuters stated that Meta is cutting down funding on several projects – with Portal and their own branded smartwatches as some among them.
Well, Meta-branded smartwatches may not be missed that much, as they haven’t launched yet. But for Portal devices, those who brought them till now may miss any new updates the company has planned.
While it’s unfortunate that Meta is dumping these devices, the company has no other options other than cutting down some projects to survive the ongoing economic crisis. Meta has recently announced laying off 11,000 employees, frozen new hiring, and even talked about potential losses in the upcoming quarters due to various reasons.
All these sums up to say that Meta – like any other company, has been struggling to keep up with the ongoing crisis; thus, dumping useless or planned projects is reasonable.
