Recently, foreign media reported that ByteDance canceled the development of its next-generation VR headset Pico 5.
According to Juro Osawa of The Information, the decision was made because sales of the current Pico 4 were much lower than expected.
But ByteDance will continue with the previously planned release of the Pico 4 upgrade, but he did not elaborate on what changes this new version will bring.
ByteDance's main hardware focus right now is to develop a high-end headset that uses cutting-edge technology as an Apple Vision Pro competitor. According to Osawa, the project is codenamed "SWAN". However, the SWAN project is "still largely experimental and conceptual", and the project will continue, at least temporarily, but it is not known whether the project will eventually be able to actually launch a commercial product.
Back in October of this year, it was reported that ByteDance might gradually shut down its PICO business and exit the metaverse space altogether. The speculation is based on the idea that ByteDance lacks expertise in hardware manufacturing and that the business has not performed as well as the company expects since acquiring PICO. At that time, the relevant person in charge of ByteDance responded to the rumors of "gradually abandoning the PICO business" and said that the news was untrue: PICO was operating normally, and the company would invest in the XR business for a long time.
PICO laid off about 400 employees last month, more than a fifth of its 1,800 employees at the time, including many employees in the sales and marketing team and the content collaboration team. In addition, 600 people were transferred to other positions at ByteDance.
When asked by UploadVR about the status of the PICO platform, ByteDance said it would "continue to function normally and provide top-notch service to users."