Nokia today has announced that it will be halting the development of its virtual reality camera, OZO and related hardware. According to the official statement released by the company, the current rate of growth within the VR market which is lower than Nokia’s expectation is the main reason behind the halt.
The decision will apparently affect up to 310 staff in Nokia Technologies which itself has around 1,090 staff with most of them located in Finland, United States, and United Kingdom. Despite the halt, Nokia will continue to honor its commitments with existing customers.
At the same time, the Finnish company will increase its effort in the digital health space. Nokia is planning to do this by taking full advantage of Nokia Health which was formerly known as Withings when it was acquired by Nokia in 2016.
Originally introduced in 2015, the OZO ecosystem which revolves around OZO+ spherical stereoscopic 360 camera as its core is designed for content creators that want to dabble in VR and mixed reality. Despite the claim by Nokia, VR is still being touted as a popular trend within the industry which is why it is rather unfortunate to see OZO being shelved away.
(Source: Nokia)
