Google Glass Is Dead, Long Live Google Glass

DumbSwede writes BBC reports on the demise of Google Glass as we know it: Google Glass sales halted but firm says kit is not dead. One can only assume there will be dissatisfied early adopters and developers given Google's decision. Here is to hoping Google Glass 2.0 (assuming there is one) will be better received. The Verge expands a bit on the re-org that the linked BBC article mentions, as a result of which Google Glass moves from the Google X incubator to its own division: Google's announcing today Glass is "graduating" from the Google X experimental projects incubator to become its own independent division — a division that will report into Nest's Tony Fadell. Current Glass head Ivy Ross will retain day-to-day authority, but she'll report to Fadell. Nest itself will remain separate and independent, and Tony will still be in charge there as well.

Comments

I hope this still comes to the industrial sector

[Anonymous Coward]

I was hoping to see some of these devices replace specialized fork lift pc's and inventory management systems. I know that a lot of things like the Honeywell hand helds and LXE's are tried and true but the idea of leaving an inventory listing in the corner of someones eye and allow verbal updates sounded like a game changer for replacing some of our existing systems.

Not surprised

[Elledan]

Best way to judge how successful a new technology is going to be is to look at how many clones stream out of China. Haven't seen a single Google Glass clone so far. Cloners may be cheap, but they're not crazy :)

Good idea...outside of the public eye

[ErichTheRed]

One of the things that I always thought about Google Glass was this -- it has a billion good uses for work, but is stupid and creepy when you start walking around in public with it. It's creepy in more than one way - there's the "everyone thinks you're a stalker" thing, the weird head gestures you need to make to control it, the talking to yourself, and also the "Google now knows exactly what my eyes are tracking in any given image" kind of creepy. I'm not a millenial, so I probably sound like an old coot, but Google already knows enough about us - phones, search, Gmail, etc.

Now, that all goes out the window when you're talking about work use. With all these cloud data centers hosting thousands of racks of servers, maintenance techs would be able to get real time info. Warehouses would be able to show human forklift drivers where stuff is. Aircraft and car mechanics would be able to get manuals without having to print/read paper job cards. Stuff like that is very useful - walking around with them in public is a different story.

Maybe Google is realizing this and tailoring future devices for certain applications.

Re:I hope this still comes to the industrial secto

[Anrego]

I honestly think we'll see the kind of jobs requiring that being automated before we see better tools for those jobs. The days of people going around warehouses gathering stuff on a list are coming to an end.

Re:the Edsels keep on coming

[JWSmythe]

They wanted bragging rights to be the early adopters. I was interested enough to say "I'll get them when the price is about $50 to $100."

There's one up for bidding on eBay, currently at $105.50. I didn't put my bid in, because that's beyond what I'm willing to pay for a toy that I'll stop using in a few days. I'll check back in a year, and see what's selling at $50.