Google wants Glass to grow up and be taken seriously, but in order to do that it is taking its connected eyewear off the shelves.
The Internet giant on Thursday announced that it is closing its Explorer pilot scheme – which gave developers the opportunity to shell out $1,500 for Glass and provide feedback to Google – and will stop selling the device on 19 January.
"Now we’re ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run," said Google.
The company said Glass has outgrown its current home, the Google[x] lab, and will become a division of the company in its own right.
"As part of this transition, we’re closing the Explorer Programme so we can focus on what’s coming next," Google said. "You’ll start to see future versions of Glass when they’re ready (for now, no peeking)."
Google has a track record of mothballing projects that it believes have run out of steam, but the hype around the wearables market, it is a safe bet that Google will do all it can to stay the course on this one.
Only this week, Berg Insight claimed that shipments of wearable devices reached 19 million worldwide in 2014, up from 5.9 million in 2013. The research firm predicts volumes will hit 168 million in 2019.
Berg Insight said it exp ects smart glasses to become the third-largest wearable device category in the next five years, driven primarily by the enterprise and healthcare markets, as well as some niche consumer segments.
"Improved imaging capability together with hands-free operation, real-time communication and augmented reality functionality would, for example, make smart glasses a serious contender on the action camera market," noted Johan Svanberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight.
Google clearly sees a bigger opportunity in the consumer space than Berg. It has partnered with Italian sunglasses maker Luxottica – owner of the Ray Ban and Oakley brands – and hired fashion and marketing specialist Ivy Ross in a bid to inject some much-needed style into its designs.
As an idea, using a device like Glass to enhance the user’s view of the world with all the information and functionality that the Internet has to offer is one that appealed from the get-go; however, the reality was somewhat different.
Early Glass wearers, or ‘Explorers’, as Google dubbed them, attracted snorts of derision for looking like smug dorks acting out their sci-fi fantasies.
Then there’s the issue of the camera on the front, which drew criticism from privacy advocates who were concerned that wearers would use Glass to spy on people.
Glass proponents pointed out that taking a picture requires a voice command or a gesture, which would be enough to alert bystanders that they were about to become a photography subject. That didn’t stop some venues from banishing Glass from their premises though.
Unfortunately, a budding developer then released Winky, an app that allowed users to take a picture simply by winking, prompting prominent media outlets like The Atlantic to call Glass "a stalker’s dream". Any wearer caught looking even vaguely suspicious was labelled a ‘Glasshole’; Google got the message loud and clear, and in February 2014 it published a list of dos and don’ts in a bid to shake Glass’ creepy reputation.
A watershed moment came in November, when Google co-founder and head of Google[x], Sergey Brin, was spotted at a red carpet event not wearing Glass. A week later, Reuters revealed that nine of the 16 Glass app makers it contacted had either stopped work on their projects or abandoned them altogether, citing a lack of customers or the limitations of the device.
With Glass’ reputation on shaky ground and momentum waning, it is hardly surprising that Google is keen to move beyond the pilot phase and ramp up Glass’ development into a fully-fledged proposition.
However, making something that is useful, functions well, appeals to developers, that isn’t creepy, and looks aesthetically pleasing, is a tall order, so it is little wonder that Google is being cagey about its launch schedule.
If the people seen wearing the next version of Google Glass are also called stalkers or Glassholes, then all this effort could be for naught.
