With excitement mounting over the seemingly imminent release of the Google Glass Explorer editions to pre-registered parties from last years Google IO and the winners of the #IfIHadGlass competition that was recently run. Details are now beginning to emerge on the manufacturing side of things for Google Glass.
According to a report in the Financial times Google Glass will be manufactured in Santa Clara by Hon Hai Precision, more popularly known as Foxconn. According to sources the devices will be assembled in the US from parts manufactured overseas – most likely in Asia – so that final quality control and last minute tweaks to the manufacturing process can be done almost instantly.
The process of manufacturing does increase the cost of the device, with early adopters paying $1500 to get their hands on the device. Google most recently attempted to manufacture the Nexus Q in the US, that product was eventually discontinued after most reviews found the device to be excellent quality but well over-priced for the features it actually provided.
It would be beneficial for Google to do its first run of manufacture in the US to streamline their manufacturing processes, however if they really wish for Glass to become a mainstream consumer product they will definitely need to look elsewhere for the main production run. As Foxconn is running the US side of the manufacturing process initially it would only seem to make good sense to have them continue more mass production at their factories in China.
Does a US manufactured product mean anything more to you?
