A contract worker for Microsoft revealed to an Israeli website that the tech giant is removing a total of 60 employees from its HoloLens augmented reality project.
Microsoft hires a good amount of contract workers to carry out its projects, but the removal of workers from what should be considered a top-tier project is a bit surprising.
According to the Israeli contract worker, who was among the affected employees by Microsoft's action, 30 contract workers have been fired, while the other 30 workers were given a maximum time of one month to search for and transfer to another open position in Microsoft. If these workers are not able to secure another job in the company by that time, they will also be laid off.
The source said that the surprising decision to shed employees working on the HoloLens project is because Microsoft decided to continue with the production of the HoloLens augmented reality headsets in the United States utilizing a different kind of technology compared to what the Israeli employees were working on.
The field of view of the HoloLens headset has experienced some limitations in the earlier versions of the device, and there are rumors stating the Microsoft is currently trying to think of a way to be able to expand the device's field of view. Whether the layoffs of the Israeli employees are related to this issue is unknown, but what is known is that Microsoft will definitely be looking for improvement in the HoloLens headset's field of view.
It is not long before the expected release of the developer version of the HoloLens early next year. The device will be carrying a price tag of $3,000, and so developers would be expecting any improvements such as a wider field of view already incorporated into the product before it is rolled out.
There are many other aspects of the HoloLens headsets that are not known to the public, and it seems that Microsoft will be keeping information hidden as long as possible regarding the device before its official launch.
