Nokia To Shut Down Ozo VR Unit, Layoff 300 Employees

Nokia has revealed plans to axe hundreds of employees to reshape the company's business strategy towards digital healthcare, patents, and virtual reality.

The closure of this business also means handing out pink slips to employees who are working for this unit across the US, Finland and the UK.

Nokia has announced plans to sharpen the focus of Nokia Technologies on digital health, and accelerate growth in that market, with an eye on investments in virtual reality (VR).

Development of new versions of the Ozo camera and associated hardware will be "halted", while "maintaining commitments to existing customers".

Nokia Technologies will now concentrate on the digital health portfolio it acquired through the purchase of Withings a year ago, and the company says that it hopes to have a "larger impact with consumers and the medical community" with its sharpened focus.

Nokia launched the professional product in 2015, but VR hasn't taken off in the way Nokia hoped it would. Nokia will also continue its work in developing 5G networking infrastructure and the Internet of Things. Disney, UEFA, Sony Pictures and other big-name companies nabbed one to create VR content, and other companies followed suit after Nokia dropped the price to $45,000. 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.

Gregory Lee, president of Nokia Technologies, said the company is at the point where, "with the right focus and investments, we can meaningfully grow our footprint in the digital health market, and we must seize that opportunity".