I bet they'll rehire like crazy in AR once the Apple Vision Pro is a success. I miss when Google had vision instead of trend following lazily
Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
21–30 of 110 posts
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#22Useless C-level executives focusing on short term gains from RIFs rather than innovating.
G is just a shadow of it’s former self. I can’t wait for the great G disruption
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#23Man I was hoping 2024 would look nicer for the job market but it looks like the trend is not stopping
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#24Notably Fitbit and AR are now dead: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/10/24033994/google-reorganiz...
Is there a good explanation for why Google started Pixel Watch when they already had FitBit? I would have understood a rebranding of FitBit to Pixel Watch, but it seems like that's not what happened.
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Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
They probably tried to move as many as possible to Bard or to backfill Ads / Android etc but some of these are people who wouldn’t / couldn’t move. It mainly signals that upper management is not up to task and made bad bets. Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”
> Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.” Is this really a surprise to anyone at this point?
No but there are a lot of Google employees who still believe e.g. Google makes the world a better place by owning all third party cookies.
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#26It’s amazing how much the industry leaders just copy each other. Google didn’t throw the towel in until Amazon did first.
Relative company stock performance dominates executive compensation (iirc, 80% of Alphabet CEO pay is relative outperformance of S&P500), so copying other large public tech companies is an outcome of the incentives.
A compensation scheme like this encourage companies to take unnecessary risk to outperform the market.
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Relative company stock performance dominates executive compensation (iirc, 80% of Alphabet CEO pay is relative outperformance of S&P500), so copying other large public tech companies is an outcome of the incentives.
A compensation scheme like this encourage companies to take unnecessary risk to outperform the market.
It depends, owner-CEOs have true stock, not just options, so are balanced between upside and downside risk.
For-hire CEOs often are also paid in equity, not just stock options. But even with just call options (Which have no downside risk), there is the risk of the professional reputation of the CEO, if you just do middling for a few years and leave, still plenty of job opportunitiess. If you crash and burn the company down... Very tough to find another good exec position again.
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
If one of google's working theories is they should hire people to keep them away from other organizations then it makes sense they don't fire until they see their competitors start.
They probably tried to move as many as possible to Bard or to backfill Ads / Android etc but some of these are people who wouldn’t / couldn’t move. It mainly signals that upper management is not up to task and made bad bets. Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”
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Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
If one of google's working theories is they should hire people to keep them away from other organizations then it makes sense they don't fire until they see their competitors start.
They probably tried to move as many as possible to Bard or to backfill Ads / Android etc but some of these are people who wouldn’t / couldn’t move. It mainly signals that upper management is not up to task and made bad bets. Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”
That isn't an accurate characterization of these layoffs. They also laid people off in ads and just across all the orgs in general apparently. I'm hearing this from one of my friends in ads who got laid off.
Re: Google lays off hundreds in hardware, voice assistant teams
#30It’s amazing how much the industry leaders just copy each other. Google didn’t throw the towel in until Amazon did first.
Everyone is constantly worried about missing out on the next smartphone. Apple and Google got in early, and others who tried to follow failed. Voice assistant and VR are both examples of strategic investment over what the market really supports in demand.
there were smartphones before iphone and android. Apple and google pushed tech to new level and out-competted opponents.