HTC has announced that it will be laying off 1,500 employees in the manufacturing unit in Taiwan. HTC was once famous for making smartphones but has gradually been transitioning over to VR headset manufacturing over the years.
Currently, the company staffs around 6,450 employees according to Reuters and with the 1,500 job cut they will essentially be laying off a quarter of their workforce. “Today HTC announces plan to optimize the manufacturing organizations in Taiwan … This plan will allow more effective and flexible resource management going forward,” said HTC.
HTC has been at the forefront of VR and they look to recommit to their product. Just earlier this year, HTC struck a deal with Google worth $1.1 billion where they are transferring their smartphone team over to Google to further develop the Pixel smartphone.
“This agreement is a brilliant next step in our longstanding partnership, enabling Google to supercharge their hardware business while ensuring continued innovation within our HTC smartphone and VIVE virtual reality businesses,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC. “We believe HTC is well positioned to maintain our rich legacy of innovation and realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services.”
What does this all mean for the company? They look to make some savings for the company and make the company a little bit more leaner in staff. Production wise, we aren’t quite sure. We know the company is all-in on VR and we’ll be tracking their progress.
HTC has three different VR headsets that they are currently focusing on: Vive, Vive Pro, and the Vive Focus.