2 
BMX bikes! Skydiving! High fives! For everyone who was floored by the movie stunt-style debut of Google Glass yesterday at day one of I/O, well, pump the brakes. They won’t even be consumer-ready until 2014, Sergey Brin told Bloomberg Television.
Though devs were able to sign up for a pre-order of the explorer edition yesterday (read: pay Google £1,000 for a chance to test a product that’s in beta), the trial period doesn’t begin until next year. But hey, they did get a sweet engraved glass brick to put on their mantles to signify that sometime in the future, they’ll be part of the pilot.
Yes, the demo was impressive. But wait, how do these things even work? And what are the specs? Google didn’t talk about any of that. Just smoke and mirrors, demonstrations of how they could be used theoretically, distracting from what the actual tech behind the lenses is. If the timeline of Google delivering on, for example, Android OS updates, is any indication, 2014 might actually be generous. At least by then, you’ll have saved enough money for a pair. [Bloomberg TV via Ars Technica]
This Isn't a Christmas Decoration
This Isn't an Animation
This Skateboarding Video Isn't Real
Normally people complain about how closed development of products is. Google make something cool and wanna show it to the world, and they’re lauded for that also. This is a potentially revolutionary product, and they’re not gonna release it on a whim or give people early access without some hefty sore of commitment (re: £1000 price tag). Just the same, they’re not gonna release something with the potential of Glass until it’s perfect or people just won’t buy it. By acclimatising the public to the aesthetic and functionality of the product, Google minimise the likelihood that it’ll flop – like we see so often with neat consumer tech that just doesn’t catch on. To say a 2014 release date is like no release date is scandalous – do you really expect a corporation like Google to just run off with all the £££ generated from the pre-release and leave an entire development community ostracised? I very highly doubt it.
I reckon they’re hoping somebody beats them to it. They’ve done some R&D and other people haven’t, so they have a good technological advantage. The one thing they can’t predict is what flaws people will find when a model is actually on sale. If another company puts a product out, google can learn from the flaws in that one, watch customer reactions, update its own offering, and launch it with the twin attack of better tech and less flaws.
Since it isn’t a product that’s going to instantly fly off the shelves they aren’t going to have a problem with people tying themselves into the first brand that launches it, so there isn’t really a first mover advantage here. I’d say waiting to see how someone else flops first is a good plan, business wise.
Never even thought of it like that. Also, as we saw the other day with Sony’s new patents, companies are gonna rush to get a product on the shelf. If Google hold off just a little after they do, not only would the other product be naturally worse due to it being the first, but it’ll also almost certainly be a rushed effort. The whole promo video could’ve been just to throw everyone off the scent of what they’re really trying to achieve, thus coming out with a product that’s not only revolutionary in the general sense, but also within its new sector (assuming the first products follow somewhat the promo video AND badly).
There are many ways this could go, and I think tone of the articles does absolutely no justice to what exactly this is.
And the fact that two years’ R&D, working with prototypes, sounds about right. Google have just let people know what they’re working on a lot earlier than is usual.
Sony probably spent about a year prototyping the original Playstation controller. And that’s just buttons!
£1000 for vapourware? Where do I sign up?!
No it means 2014, honestly the comprehension skills of you youngsters are appalling
Am I the only one that doesn’t understand this product (in its current form)? The concept video was incredible, but all of the demos have been nothing more than a camera mounted on glasses. I also believe the glasses are always linked to another device on the person. I understand that what they ship will have added functionality, but at the moment I don’t feel there is anything to get excited about.
Agreed. It could go two ways: incredible or crap. I hope it’s the former, but it’s more likely the latter.