Around two months back, Google announced that it would cease to sell its $1,500 Glass headset, laying to rest its famed Explorer Program. But today, we’re hearing news that it might make a triumphant return.
Google announced – back then – 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 ‘open beta’ to hear what people had to say.” It wasn’t entirely clear that the program itself wasn’t being put to an end, but we rather have someone from Google just say it out.
Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, has said that the company would be sticking to the concept as the technology is too important to be scrapped.
The concern that Google may actually roll back the program was raised after the project was moved out of the Google X research lab and handed to Tony Fadell as a standalone unit. This move to place the project under Fadell’s watch however – as suggested by Schmidt – is to “make it ready for users.”
Schmidt further went on record to say that when Google announced the demise of the Explorer Program, “the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true. Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it.” Schmidt compared Glass to the company’s self-driving car, suggesting that projects of such nature are long term and take time to get refined.
Interestingly, there was also a report last year suggesting that the Mountain View based company is looking to release a next-gen Google Glass which would not only have a improved battery life, sound quality, and better display, but would be much cheaper than the Google Glass Explorer Edition. More so, we could see the eye wear take on some fashionable aesthetics as well.
(Source: WSJ)
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