Alphabet has pulled the plug on its plan to bring internet access to remote areas via balloons. Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly working on a new MacBook Air. The project started out as an experiment conducted by Apple’s parent company before breaking off into its own entity in 2018. Although the program had some successful deployments, Loon was never able to find a sustainable business model.
According to Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth, the company was unable to get the costs low enough to support a long term solution to the lack of internet access in rural areas of America. The company found willing partners and investors but ultimately saw that the solution was devoid of practicality. Westgarth wrote that developing new tech is always risky, but the decision to shut down the project was a hard one to make.
Read More: Alphabet Shuts Down Loon
