In 2012 Google revealed Google Glass with a live sky-diving demo. Google glass was a revolutionary product, that was going to change the way we use technology in our daily lives, or wasn’t it? Almost everyone will know what Google Glass is or at least has heard about it. However, how many people do you know, who own a Google Glass? Probably not that much, if any, since in the four years after the reveal of Google Glass, it never made it to the lives of the mainstream. Google even stopped selling the product. Of course there are numeral explanations for the “failure” of Glass, the product was expensive, it still had some software problems and Glass would be too “Nerdy”. Does this mean the end for augmented reality goggles for daily life? Is Google improving Glass or are there competitors with a solution for Glass’ problems?
Google itself claims that the project had “broken ground and allowed us to learn what is important to consumers and enterprises alike” and that they are still working “to integrate those learning into future products”. Which resulted in the introduction of Google Glass 2 for 2016. However Glass 2 is not publicly available and the improvements don’t really seem to solve the mentioned issues. So unless you are working at a company who is willing to invest in the enterprise edition of Glass, it does not look like you will be able to wear a Google Glass in the near future.
If Google is not focusing on the leisure industry, maybe this leaves an opportunity for competitors. Products like Hololens, Meta and Magic Leap have certainly potential in my believe to take over the leisure industry with augmented reality glasses. The main differences between these glasses and Google Glass is that Google tried to develop a pair of glasses that in design looks like a “normal” pair of glasses and that the purpose of the glass was to take over certain functionalities from your smartphone (f.e. take photos and navigation). Whereas the other companies are more focusing on the visualisation of the augmented reality (interact with 3D designs). Especially as the competitors of Google show more progress and showed amazing demo’s, I believe Google has to step it up to still make Glass succeed. However it is still Google we’re talking about and they might surprise us soon!
Hi Huub,
Thank you for posting your blog. First of all, I did not know anything about the development of the Google Glasses. In fact I did not even know that the project had any problems. I think this says enough about my trust in Google.
The market for virtual reality glasses is only just opened and I do not feel like Google lags behind the other competitors. Companies like Hololens, Meta and Magic Leap are completely unknown to me and I believe most people have never heard about these companies either. I think average customers are more willing to buy a product that is made by Google, because the company is very famous. Furthermore, I think Google has enough time (and capital) to close the technical gap between them and their competitors, because I don’t expect that the virtual reality glasses market is going mainstream anywhere soon. That is why I think Google still has a big chance to become a big player in this market.
First of all thank you for your interesting article, Huub.
When google presented its Google Glass I was convinced that it would become a huge business success for Google. However, due to various reasons as you explained, it has not yet been proven successful.
I still however believe in a future for the Google Glass. As you mentioned, there are comparable initiatives form other companies, but to my knowledge these companies mainly focus on the leisure market. The market the Google Glass is aiming for is perhaps similar to what the smart watches are trying to achieve: namely taking over certain functions from your smartphone such as easier access to online information such as the time and the weather.
I agree with you that google has to step up it’s game. The advantage of the Glass however could be that whilst focusing on the road for example, you are still able to see certain information, as for smart watches you need to interact with a rather small screen around your wrist. Once more thank you for your article; time will tell if a device like this can prove to be successful!