Meta has announced the most significant reorganization of its hardware division, Reality Labs, after rebranding it in 2020. According to The Verge, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has combined the teams into two main groups: Metaverse and Wearables.
Why it matters. The purported reorganization is evidence of the evolution of Meta’s strategy, which is now all about augmented reality (AR) and the Metaverse. It has also involved several layoffs, albeit reduced and focused on redundant leadership roles.
In detail. The Metaverse group will include:
- Quest mixed-reality headsets.
- Horizon, its Roblox-style social network.
- Technologies related to these products.
The wearables group will include:
- Smart glasses, such as those launched in partnership with Ray-Ban.
- The rest of the hardware projects.
The big bet. Meta is working on future Ray-Ban glasses with a display in the lens and a wristband to control them via a neural interface.
It’s also developing AR glasses with holographic displays, a project codenamed “Orion.”
What the CTO said. “We have the leading AI device on the market right now, and we are doubling down on finding strong product market fit for wearable Meta AI,” chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth wrote in a memo.
“We are deeply committed to investing in Horizon as the core foundation of our social, spatial Horizon OS, and high-quality experiences for both mixed reality and mobile,” he added.
- Meta VP Alex Himel will lead Wearables.
- Metaverse leader Vishal Shah will add Quest devices to his portfolio.
Context. Sources inside the company cited by The Verge said that Reality Labs had become unmanageable due to its structure and that the reorganization should have been made even earlier.
Meta has made progress but still must prove itself in hardware, especially in AR. It has invested a lot of money in technology for glasses that it has yet to unveil. The next version of its Ray-Bans with a display in the lens won’t arrive until 2025.
In perspective. Bosworth made an interesting observation: “The org chart doesn’t primarily determine whether we succeed or fail, our execution does," he said in the memo obtained by The Verge. "But by setting it up this way I hope we reduce overhead and allow people across teams to come together and execute with a more unified view of who our customers are and how we can best serve them.”
This outlook feeds into the aforementioned statements about how unmanageable this division was. It made headlines in 2024 with a convincing Quest 3 at a moderate price and more than promising Meta Ray-Ban smartglasses, especially with the addition of Meta AI. Now, we have to wait and see how it responds to this restructuring, although the confusing mix of brands will remain the same.
Image | Meta and Ray-Ban
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