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Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

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Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#81

Post by javajosh »

p1mrx wrote: post #55
mjr00 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I think the next 5-10 years will see a massive wave of new companies come out of this. There's been so much talent locked up in bigtech for so long. The amount of talent in these companies that have had golden handcuffs forever due to the continual rise of their stock grants is staggering. Now suddenly bigtech stock is down 50%+, and they can't issue enough RSUs to cover the compensation gap. Moreover, there…

On the other hand, it seems most of the low-hanging fruit has been picked over the last couple decades. What is left for a random small business with software talent to do?

One example. It is my personal belief is that social media is ripe for disruption in ways we have not imagined yet. Clearly centralized, ad-revenue driven psuedo-monopolies are a big problem. I actually believe there is a parallel problem with software engineering that has focused on larger piles of cloud-hosted complexity that has far outstripped the ability of anyone to hold it in their head. These two things are, I believe, deeply intertwined and so the solution will be at both levels too. Of course, I'm not the only one who sees an opportunity here. I love seeing all the ideas in this space; most of them won't work, of course, but that's the nature of experimentation.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#83

Post by homeland221 »

fragmede wrote: post #10
sys_64738 wrote: post #5

Every business will can projects in their portfolio when belt tightening. VR and its multitude of derivative just isn't a core competency of M$. If anybody is to win this space then it'll be Apple IMO.

Apple's spend in this area is totally unknown, other than everybody expects them to. To contrast, Meta has been spending so much in this area that they've bet the company on it. It's anybody's game right now, but Meta already has launched products and iterated on them.

Apple also spent money on cars too. They likely could have spent billions judging by their tell-tale hiring ads over the past decade. What they are good at is huge amount of cash to operate very clandestinely (just park other RnD in their guidance) and they rarely tell stockholders what they doing other than the mundane usual iPhone, iPad, Foxconn, MacOS news. Meta, Google and Alphabet do things very publicly whether they intentionally seek publicity or unintentionally leaked out (like their near santient AI - they must have it with firing of so many concerned scientists there - only 2 prominent one make it to news, there are others....and didnt released it with OpenGPT beating them)

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#84

Post by mjr00 »

p1mrx wrote: post #55
mjr00 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I think the next 5-10 years will see a massive wave of new companies come out of this. There's been so much talent locked up in bigtech for so long. The amount of talent in these companies that have had golden handcuffs forever due to the continual rise of their stock grants is staggering. Now suddenly bigtech stock is down 50%+, and they can't issue enough RSUs to cover the compensation gap. Moreover, there…

On the other hand, it seems most of the low-hanging fruit has been picked over the last couple decades. What is left for a random small business with software talent to do?

I actually strongly disagree -- the amount of business potential for software that isn't trying to becoming a billion-dollar unicorn is massive, and has been extremely underserved during the past decade as most of the money (and talent) chased after the billion dollar moonshot bets, either in B2C businesses or very generic B2B software (think Atlassian).

It's harder to find the business potential because the opportunities are much more closely coupled to optimizing specific processes in specific industries. But if you can find the right niche, the business opportunities are there.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#85

Post by relyks »

andirk wrote: post #80
h0l0cube wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more that the industry is bearish on long bets in a tight financial climate. The tech for VR/AR is too clunky to seamlessly integrate into peoples' daily lives like mobile phones and smart phones did. There will need to be an iPhone-like leap in affordable and portable vision tech before VR/AR becomes a feasible marketplace.

There was Google Glass but it got laughed out of town for being made for dorks. Seemed like perfectly good tech.

I don’t think Google Glass provides any augmented reality functionality? It’s just a mobile head-up display. You need a lot more processing power (and clunkier hardware) to be able to do augmented reality

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#86

Post by dh2022 »

roughly wrote: post #68
dh2022 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: "They will keep everything a secret[...]then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product" - that was true (in spades) during Steve Jobs era. What mind blowing product did Apple launch since Oct 2011? Under Tim Apple iterated competently, magnificently, [insert your favorite adjective here] but no mind blowing product....

The Apple Watch was launched in the era of Tim Cook, though I suppose it’s more “ipad revolutionary” (nobody had done it successfully) than “iPhone revolutionary” (nobody had tried). I’ll also say the AirPods are the most quietly competent products I own. One could also argue for the M chips, which were absolutely game changing when they came out.

I still remember the first time I heard about the iPhone. I was like "this is incredible". My friend in Romania asked me to buy him an iPhone - when I told him he would not be able to use it in Romania [1] he said it does not matter, he wants it it looks super cool. When I first saw the Apple Watch my reaction was between huh and meh.

[1] As far as I remember there was only one telecom in US that was working with the iPhone. My memory on this is fuzzy, but I clearly remember telling that to my friend and his answer.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#87

Post by astrange »

bitwize wrote: post #19
fragmede wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's spend in this area is totally unknown, other than everybody expects them to. To contrast, Meta has been spending so much in this area that they've bet the company on it. It's anybody's game right now, but Meta already has launched products and iterated on them.

Apple is built different as a tech company. They will keep everything a secret more closely guarded than the nuclear codes, then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product that leaves everything else in the dust, just like they did with the iPhone. A Quest 2 with an Apple Silicon CPU would, alone, be a game changer. There's probably some advanced head and eye tracking and SLAM AI in there too that makes Meta's s…

Seems to me there's a lot more leaks about Apple than about Google. Where's the Bloomberg reporter dedicated to writing about new PRs on their search engine?

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#89

Post by bitwize »

noAnswer wrote: post #61
bitwize wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is built different as a tech company. They will keep everything a secret more closely guarded than the nuclear codes, then come out of nowhere with a mind-blowing product that leaves everything else in the dust, just like they did with the iPhone. A Quest 2 with an Apple Silicon CPU would, alone, be a game changer. There's probably some advanced head and eye tracking and SLAM AI in there too that makes Meta's s…

> ...then come out of nowhere...like they did with the iPhone Everyone and their dog knew the iPhone was coming and what it was about.

People speculated correctly that an iPhone would be released under that name. But there was no confirmation until the release.

People are now speculating that Apple will release VR gear. We won't know for sure until release.

Re: Microsoft has laid off entire teams behind Virtual, Mixed Reality, and HoloLens

#90

Post by MontagFTB »

cududa wrote: post #8

That is an extremely misleading headline. AltSpace and the geospatial anchor teams have been axed. Lots of folks were reduced across MR and HoloLens, but the teams weren’t completely fired

I’ve heard something similar from a contact who works in those departments. The VR space was hit hard, but the AR groups are still around.
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