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

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

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

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

Whereas Apple and Meta are advancing in the 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that imply that Google has fallen behind within the AR race, and it’s now conceding that the opposite tech giants have outdated it?

Amid difficult market situations, 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 adverts 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 might present for discovery merchandise.

Certainly, over the previous few years, Google has shared a number of glimpses of its potential worth in an AR future, and the way digital overlays might 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 varied new initiatives as a part of its ARCore undertaking, together with AR video games.

In 2020, Google even partnered with Snapchat for an interactive tackle its ‘12 months in Search’ traits overview, and with all of this, it has appeared like AR will probably be a logical extension of Google’s varied parts, and as such, could be a key focus for the corporate transferring ahead.

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

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

With a lot occurring, it will look like Google must be digging in, however it’s scaling again as an alternative.

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

It’ll be attention-grabbing to see the way it all develops, and the way Google seems 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 might 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 will probably be, and the way it will look to construct across the subsequent tech traits.