Some time ago Google has confirmed that they have laid off most of their employees, inevitably this can be called Mass Layoffs. Even so, Google is famous for providing large benefits for employees affected by mass layoffs from their offices.
Google also confirmed that the layoffs they made were not only at their headquarters, but from various development divisions in Pixel Phone, AR, Assistant to Fitbit. As a result, the impact may be more imposed on employees who remain, where their duties will increase due to employee reductions.
The company will certainly feel the impact that is also not much different, through Google spokesperson, Courtenay Mencini who gave their confirmation to the media about what impact is currently felt by Google as a giant company that has hired many skilled developers.
According to Mencini, this is quite difficult because Google is losing a lot of AR developers from their company. Even though AR itself will be a technology that will be further developed by Google, it is certainly important because currently Bard AI is starting to be widely integrated into several Google services.
“A few hundred roles are being eliminated in DSPA with the majority of impacts on the 1P AR Hardware team. While we are making changes to our 1P AR hardware team, Google continues to be deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products, and product partnerships.”
The confirmation given by Mencini is difficult, many say that this is the beginning of the end of Fitbit which has long been supported by Google, it is also known that Fitbit is not an official company made by Google and they will focus on developing the Pixel Watch.
“We remain very committed to serving our Fitbit users well, innovating in the health space with personal AI, and building on the momentum with Pixel Watch, the redesigned Fitbit app, Fitbit Premium service, and the Fitbit tracker line. This work will continue to be a key part of our new org model.”
What do you think? Do you think this is indeed the end of the Fitbit Watch and Google will fully focus on developing the Pixel Watch? Comment below.