In November, Meta announced the retirement of its standalone video chat device, Portal. This decision was made when Meta made the announcement. First mass layoffs in history Amid falling stock prices and concerns over ambitions in the Metaverse.
Over the years, BuzzFeed News’ coverage of Meta and Facebook has been unflinching. Strict and sometimes hostile. our review A Portal rep also said: This was a really great product.we loved that.Me loved that. The rest of the power, portal — you were a good little device.
Portal was born in a harsh world. Released in the fall of 2018, Cambridge Analytica The pseudo-scandal — about Facebook’s failed handling of user data and (in hindsight) exaggerated claims about Facebook’s influence on the 2016 election — was still fresh in the public memory. It was also still fresh in the minds of the tech press reviewing the device. It was like doing
Despite this, Portal sold well, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told BuzzFeed News in an interview. (Mehta declined to disclose exact sales numbers, but Bosworth said the number of units sold was “million.” It also appealed to a different demographic than most gadgets: women and His 40+ sold much more.
The final decision to pull the plug was made because Portal didn’t see a path to becoming a big business (rather than just a great business). “We are very sad about it,” said Bosworth. portal devices will continue to function and be supported.)
“The whole smart home category has been disappointing for some time,” said Bosworth. “If you compare where the smart home industry was to where it is now as an industry when Portal entered the market, I think it just hasn’t been as successful as we hoped.”
