Facebook brings together hardware activities under key exec

Facebook has put one of its key executives, Andrew Bosworth, in charge of the company’s consumer hardware activity and is planning to launch a new video chat devices codenamed Aloha, according to a report by Business Insider.

According to the report, Aloha will be the first in a series of consumer devices from Facebook’s CE team, which is also working on a smart speaker, a 360° camera and wearables.

Aloha, it said, will feature a large touchscreen and camera as well as face recognition technology.

According to Business Insider, Bosworth, previously vice-president of Facebook’s ads and business platform, will now head up all consumer hardware activities, including both the Oculus virtual reality arm and activities carried out in ‘Building 8’ a secretive facility dedicated to new programmes.

According to the report, Facebook is attempting to unity its disparate hardware efforts in order to better compete with the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft.

Business Insider said that Facebook’s Building 8 has suffered from a number of high-profile departures in recent months, including those of chief operating officer Richard Wooldridge, head of consumer experience Donald Hicks and head of product management Olivier Bartholot.