It was one other robust day for the tech sector yesterday, with Google asserting a brand new spherical of lay-offs, and slashing lots of of roles from a number of divisions.

As reported by The New York Instances, the majority of the cuts had been amongst these engaged on Google Assistant, with the corporate now trying to re-shape the instrument round AI, and cut back some parts.

However one other attention-grabbing level of notice was this:

“Google mentioned that a lot of the {hardware} cuts affected a workforce engaged on augmented actuality, expertise that mixes the actual world with a digital overlay.”

Whereas Apple and Meta are advancing in direction of making AR an even bigger focus, with Apple’s first Imaginative and prescient Professional headsets to go on sale from February 2nd, Google’s now seemingly taking a step again.

May that imply that Google has fallen behind within the AR race, and it’s now conceding that the opposite tech giants have outmoded it?

Amid difficult market circumstances, the massive gamers are being compelled to make some robust calls about their future bets, with Snap Inc. additionally reassessing their longer-term plans as a result of impacts within the digital advertisements sector.

However AR does look set to have an enormous second, within the very close to future, and as such, it’s attention-grabbing to see Google probably deprioritizing it, particularly contemplating the alternatives that it may present for discovery merchandise.

Certainly, over the previous couple of years, Google has shared a number of glimpses of its potential worth in an AR future, and the way digital overlays may complement Google’s core Search merchandise.

In 2022, Google even shared an summary of its personal, in-development AR glasses, that are nonetheless seemingly in testing.

Google’s additionally been experimenting with numerous new initiatives as a part of its ARCore venture, together with AR video games.

In 2020, Google even partnered with Snapchat for an interactive tackle its ‘12 months in Search’ tendencies overview, and with all of this, it has appeared like AR shall be a logical extension of Google’s numerous parts, and as such, can be a key focus for the corporate shifting ahead.

The newest cuts don’t essentially imply that it gained’t be, however it’s attention-grabbing to think about why Google can be scaling again on this space, on the cusp of the following stage of the tech.

Along with the pending Imaginative and prescient Professional launch, which can introduce extra individuals to those immersive experiences, Meta’s additionally planning to start actual world testing of its AR glasses prototype this 12 months.

With a lot occurring, it will appear to be Google ought to be digging in, but it surely’s scaling again as an alternative.

Which appears odd, and naturally, there could also be extra to it that we will’t know. But it surely may very well be that Google has determined that AR merely gained’t be as large part of its future plans.

It’ll be attention-grabbing to see the way it all develops, and the way Google appears to be like to combine AR parts as they emerge. At one stage, I had speculated that Google may very well be a suitor for Snapchat, and will increase its AR performance by acquisition, which may nonetheless be on the playing cards, although given the broader cuts, that does appear unlikely.

But it surely’s attention-grabbing to think about what Google’s focus shall be, and the way it will look to construct across the subsequent tech tendencies.