Home Business NewsTech NewsGoogle is terminating sales of Google Glass from 19 Jan. Why?

Google is terminating sales of Google Glass from 19 Jan. Why?

by LLB Editor
16th Jan 15 9:08 am

Goodbye glassholes?

Come 19 January and Google will stop selling its Google Glass eyewear.

Why? The company wants to work on โ€œfuture versions of Glassโ€. Itโ€™s not really clear what went wrong with Googleโ€™s ambitious project but the company said โ€œwe still have some work to do, but now weโ€™re 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 โ€œperfect stalkerโ€™s 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 wonโ€™t buy it)

In a blog post, Google said: โ€œWeโ€™re closing the Explorer Program so we can focus on whatโ€™s coming next. January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, weโ€™re continuing to build for the future, and youโ€™ll start to see future versions of Glass when theyโ€™re ready. (For now, no peeking.)โ€

Under the new plans, Googleโ€™s 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.

Googleโ€™s full blog post

Weโ€™re graduating from Google[x] labs

โ€œItโ€™s 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 โ€œopen betaโ€ to hear what people had to say.

โ€œExplorers, 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.

โ€œGlass 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 weโ€™re ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run.

โ€œSince we first met, interest in wearables has exploded and today itโ€™s one of the most exciting areas in technology. Glass at Work has been growing and weโ€™re seeing incredible developments with Glass in the workplace. As we look to the road ahead, we realize that weโ€™ve outgrown the lab and so weโ€™re officially โ€œgraduatingโ€ from Google[x] to be our own team here at Google. Weโ€™re thrilled to be moving even more from concept to reality.

โ€œAs part of this transition, weโ€™re closing the Explorer Program so we can focus on whatโ€™s coming next. January 19 will be the last day to get the Glass Explorer Edition. In the meantime, weโ€™re continuing to build for the future, and youโ€™ll start to see future versions of Glass when theyโ€™re ready. (For now, no peeking.)

โ€œThanks to all of you for believing in us and making all of this possible. Hang tightโ€”itโ€™s going to be an exciting ride.๏ปฟโ€

For those of you who donโ€™t know, Google itself came up with the term โ€œglassholesโ€ last year. In fact, it launched a step-by-step guide on how to avoid being a glasshole last year.

ย 

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