Back in 2015, Nokia announced the OZO Virtual Reality Camera, designed to be the next-gen camera for capturing audio and video in 360 degrees. However, Nokia has recently announced that they are stopping all development for the OZO.

“Nokia today announced plans to sharpen the focus of Nokia Technologies on digital health, and accelerate growth in that market, while optimizing investments in virtual reality (VR). Nokia Technologies will also focus on growing brand and technology licensing while leaving its successful patent licensing business untouched,” Nokia said in an October 10th press release, revealing that they are shifting their focus from VR to patent licensing and digital healthcare tech.

On the topic of the company switching their focus to digital health, Gregory Lee, president of Nokia Technologies said in a statement that “Nokia Technologies is at a 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.”

Nokia says that their reasoning for ending the OZO’s development is because the VR market is developing slower than they expected it to.

The decision to end production for the OZO will lead to 310 Nokia employees losing their jobs in Finland, the US and the UK. Nokia Technologies currently employs 1090 people, meaning that Nokia will lose about a third of its workforce in Nokia Technologies.

Nokia also says that they will still “maintain commitments” to their existing customers, even after completely halting the OZO’s development. How they will maintain their commitments to Nokia customers wasn’t clarified in the press release.

Originally positioned two years ago as a high-end option for 360 filmmakers and first being sold for $60,000 then being cut to $45,000, we now bid the OZO farewell. And now, the VR market unfortunately has one less VR 360 camera to push the new medium forward.