Meta plans to stop selling Portals to the general public
Meta plans to stop selling its Portal products to the general public in order to focus on the professional market, according to The Information. The shift in strategy comes as Facebook’s parent company reassesses its product plans.
The Portal devices already created will be sold to the general public, as is the case today. But as soon as there is no more stock, Meta will produce new models and they will only be available for purchase for professionals. Mixed sales to individuals played a role in the choice to stop the sale.
According to research firm IDC, Meta sold 600,000 Portal devices in 2020 and 800,000 in 2021, as companies seek solutions to facilitate communication with remote employees. Perhaps it was the knowledge that it was the companies that boosted sales of these devices in the past couple of years that prompted Meta to change the direction of the product line. We just have to wait and see how Portals for enterprises will differ from their counterparts for the general public. The company has launched several versions of its Portals in the past, including the Portal TV which turns TVs into large connected screens, as well as the Portal Go, which can be removed from its charging station and moved around.
This is not the only loadout when it comes to hardware. Yesterday we learned that Meta has halted development of its smartwatch with two cameras. It was his first connected watch and it was due to be released in the spring of 2023.
