Microsoft confirms 60 job cuts in Hololens team

Microsoft has confirmed that it has cut 60 jobs from the Hololens team as part of a shift in priorities in the development of the augmented reality headset. The team based in Israel was affected, with 30 full-time workers and 30 third-party contractors affected, the development of the Hololens will now be brought over to the US ahead of the launch of the $3000 developer edition next year.

Following on from Ynet's initial report, TechCrunch got in touch with Microsoft and received the following statement surrounding the changes: “We continually evaluate our business needs and recently made decisions affecting some positions in one of our groups in Israel. As needed, we increase investments in some areas and de-invest in others which results in the movement of jobs across the organization, and at times, job eliminations. Our priority is to work with and support employees affected by this decision.”

Right now, Microsoft has not yet revealed any final plans to bring the Hololens to the consumer market, so for now, it is purely focussing on getting the headset in to developer hands, though the first units are quite expensive. Developers also need to sign up prior to buying one, this way Microsoft can avoid selling any units to regular consumers.

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KitGuru Says: Obviously Microsoft isn't giving up on the Hololens, it is just moving development to the US, rather than having two teams spread out across the world. Have any of you been following the Hololens since its announcement at the start of this year? 

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