Three days after he resigned as Xiaomi’s global head, technological connoisseur Hugo Barra announced that he will be joining social media Facebook as the company’s Vice President of Virtual Reality.
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Barra’s big move first came to the fore when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg made a post regarding the same, a part of which read, “Hugo shares my belief that virtual and augmented reality will be the next major computing platform. They’ll enable us to experience completely new things and be more creative than ever before.”
Barra later shared Zuckerberg’s post, citing excitement about his return to the Silicon Valley to lead FB’s Oculus VR team, in addition to commenting on the original that it was his dream to work in virtual reality even before the concept of AR/VR took shape.
Single-handedly responsible for turning Xiaomi into a global brand, Barra would bring to the table his expertise in hardware manufacturing and distribution along with a knowledgeable software background.
By the looks of it, Barra’s primary task would be to overturn Oculus’ fortunes as it had a rocky last year wherein its debut device, the Rift VR goggles, had to endure a botched up launch due to problems in shipping as well as a higher than expected price.
Facing stiff competition from the likes of HTC and Sony, the goggles are to make a mark in the mainstream market.
Barra’s move to Facebook seems to have transpired after Brendan Iribe, Chief Executive of Oculus moved to head another division, leaving his post vacant.
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Alongside Iribe, Barra would be working with Mike Schroepfer, CTO of Facebook and “the visionaries in the Oculus team” as put by himself.
Barra is currently in China where he is currently serving his last days with Xiaomi after which he is expected take the helm at Oculus, which cost FB a cool $2 billion in 2014.
