According to a new report, major changes are brewing in Google's devices and services division. The changes include the departures of Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, as well as hundreds of layoffs in the division.
9to5Google first reported the departures of Parker and Friedman, who joined Google when it acquired Fitbit. Other Fitbit team members reportedly joined Parker and Friedman in leaving today.
Google is also restructuring how its devices and services divisions operate. Previously, the company had mostly split its Pixel, Nest and Fitbit hardware engineering teams into independent groups, each with their own leadership. That will change, and all of these teams will now fall under one hardware engineering group, led by one person. The report did not specify who will be the new leader of this unified hardware team.
While Google didn't officially confirm Fitbit's departure or the reorganization of its Devices and Services division, it confirmed in a statement to 9to5Google that it would be cutting "hundreds of positions" in the division. Most of these layoffs will come from Google's augmented reality team. The company added in its statement:
While we make changes to the 1P AR hardware team, Google remains firmly committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences across our products and product partnerships.
According to the report, affected employees can apply for open positions at Google.
Google will remain an important partner for other AR hardware projects. At CES2024 held this week, Qualcomm released a new AR/VR chip SnapdragonXR2+Gen2. The headset is expected to be launched by the end of 2024.