Google stops production for its Glass product

The company is interested to launch Glass as a consumer product but it will stop producing the current version

The future of the Google Glass has been a hot debate among various analysts since the past couple of months but it appears as if they will be put to rest because Google has revealed at least some hint towards what it has planned for the product. The company apparently has all the intentions to launch these smart glasses as a consumer product, however, the Google Glass as we know it currently is not going to be produced any more.

Google is now going to spend time working on the so called “future versions of Glass” and for this, a different division of the company has been put to work. It is not just the production of the glass, but Google is also shutting down the Explorer program which had given software developers the chance to buy Glass for $1,500 (£990). The program was initiated back in 2013 in the US following which it was open to anyone and last summer was launch in the UK.

Taking action from next week, there will be no orders taken for the product however Google has ensured that those companies that are still using Glass will be supported.

New home

The Glass team is also receding from the Google X division which dealt with the “blue sky” research and under current manager Ivy Ross, they will now become a separate undertaking. Along with her, the Glass team will directly be reporting to Tony Fadell, the chief executive of the home automation business Nest which was acquired by Google almost a year ago. Fadell says that the project had “broken ground and allowed us to learn what’s important to consumers and enterprises alike” and he appears to be quite excited to be able to work with the new team.

He further added that together they are going “to integrate those learnings into future products”. Google is also determined on its stance and is going to be working committed for the future of the product but there was no mention of any new version coming up.

Restaurant ban

Initially things had kicked off perfectly for the Google Glass. It had the full support of Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin and was receiving a wonderful feedback from the early users who found the idea of getting information in a small screen above their right eye very appealing and exciting. But these users also got tired of the product saying that it wasn’t evolving in ways which had been promised. Because of the ability of the product to record videos and take pictures, the question of privacy soon emerged and some restaurants and bars banned the use of the product on their premises.

While many companies have tried to put forward their own versions of smart glasses and various other forms of wearable technology, we haven’t encountered something which managed to become an instant hit.