Goodbye glassholes?
Come 19 January and Google will stop selling its Google Glass eyewear.
Why? The company wants to work on โfuture versions of Glassโ. Itโs not really clear what went wrong with Googleโs ambitious project but the company said โwe still have some work to do, but now weโre ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to runโ.
The Google Explorer programme launched in the US in 2013 and in the UK in June 2014. The device costs $1,500 in the US and ยฃ1,000 in the UK.
Google Glass caused safety and privacy concerns with experts calling it a the โperfect stalkerโs toolโ. It was banned in bars and restaurants. Department for Transport also took issue with it for the glass posing security hazards. (Read: Google Glass: 10 reasons Brits wonโt buy it)
In a blog post, Google said: โWeโre closing the Explorer Program so we can focus on whatโs coming next. January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, weโre continuing to build for the future, and youโll start to see future versions of Glass when theyโre ready. (For now, no peeking.)โ
Under the new plans, Googleโs Glass team will now no longer be a part of Google X division. It will now be an independent undertaking managed by its current boss Ivy Ross. Ross and her team will report to Tony Fadell, the CEO of home automation business Nest, that Google acquired last year.
Googleโs full blog post
Weโre graduating from Google[x] labs
โItโs hard to believe that Glass started as little more than a scuba mask attached to a laptop. We kept on it, and when it started to come together, we began the Glass Explorer Program as a kind of โopen betaโ to hear what people had to say.
โExplorers, we asked you to be pioneers, and you took what we started and went further than we ever could have dreamed: from the large hadron collider at CERN, to the hospital operating table; the grass of your backyard to the courts of Wimbledon; in fire stations, recording studios, kitchens, mountain tops and more.
โGlass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk. Well, we still have some work to do, but now weโre ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run.
โSince we first met, interest in wearables has exploded and today itโs one of the most exciting areas in technology. Glass at Work has been growing and weโre seeing incredible developments with Glass in the workplace. As we look to the road ahead, we realize that weโve outgrown the lab and so weโre officially โgraduatingโ from Google[x] to be our own team here at Google. Weโre thrilled to be moving even more from concept to reality.
โAs part of this transition, weโre closing the Explorer Program so we can focus on whatโs coming next. January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, weโre continuing to build for the future, and youโll start to see future versions of Glass when theyโre ready. (For now, no peeking.)
โThanks to all of you for believing in us and making all of this possible. Hang tightโitโs going to be an exciting ride.๏ปฟโ
For those of you who donโt know, Google itself came up with the term โglassholesโ last year. In fact, it launched a step-by-step guide on how to avoid being a glasshole last year.
ย
Leave a Comment