The seemingly abrupt end of the Glass Explorer program earlier this year led a number of people to believe, that the program was dead. Google Executive Chairman has spoken up about those claims, speaking in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
The Glass program ended in January with Google announcing that the Glass Explorer program was ending, as were sales of the headset through Google Play. Also announced at the same time was a restructure of the team, as well as a move from the Google X Labs that gave birth to the program into Google proper. As part of the move, it was announced that though the Google Glass team continues to be headed up by Ivy Ross, the team would be overseen by Nest CEO Tony Fadell.
Schmidt has said in his interview that it’s Fadell who is going ‘to make it ready for users’. Of the program overall, Schmidt also noted its importance to Google as a platform, saying
It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google. We ended the Explorer program and 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.
There were comparisons drawn with the self-driving car project which Google has been at the forefront of for several years. Though it’s been in development for many years, it’s still not ready to drive down the road. It’s this kind of long-term view which Google has for Glass.
Glass V2.0 will eventually make its way into the public arena, but from the sounds of this, it won’t be until it’s really ready this time. Glass V1 as it stood had many issues including terrible battery life, large price and a stigma of privacy invasion thanks to the head-mounted camera, which had no way to indicate when it was recording. It’s these issues which Fadell is reportedly looking to fix before the next version.
What Glass will look like, when it will come and most importantly how much it will cost will be announced in time, we just hope that availability wise it will come to Australia.
Did you purchase Glass? Do you still use it?
