895 million was how much Google spent developing Google Glass.
$1,500 was the price per unit.
It was reported over 100,000 units were sold or given away.
Google projected they’d sell 800,000 glasses in 2014 and 10 million by 2018.
After several unsuccessful attempts to sell the prototype to the public, it was discontinued in January 2015.
Google still has glasses as a side project in the company. An example being how they bought the company Focals for 180 million dollars in 2020.
Google Glass is still a dream for the company, but with the failure of Google Glass, maybe it’s just time to admit nobody wants this?
Quick explanation of what Google Glasses were.
“Smart glasses” which had the following features.
- A camera
- A small screen people can see with one eye.
- A Bluetooth for talking to someone on the phone.
- The ability to be called a “glasshole” wearing one.
That’s it and any feature to be spun off with that tech could be done with a phone, but much lower quality.
One feature Google tried to market was the ability to wear Google Glass and have Google identify things people saw with a visual search extension.
The issue being that was just a feature someone can do on a phone, with a phone being easier to point at something and control it.
Another feature Google marketed was the ability to help give directions, where it can show arrows while walking.
Problem here is this really is only valuable for people living in cities and smart watches already did the same thing.
Probably the biggest issue with Google Glass was using it, it’d require to connect with wifi or a smart phone, just showing how there was no feature in it that couldn’t be done on a phone.
The next issue was also the disappointment of expectations.
Many people thought Google Glass would be involved with augmented or virtual reality, but minus the arrows for directions, it had no involvement in AR or VR.
Which is amusing seeing how Microsoft has been working on AR for years with the HoloLens, Facebook has sold over 15 million units and Sony sold over 5 million PSVR’s, but Google which is an innovative company hasn’t jumped into AR or VR as much, minus being the lead investor in the controversial AR company, Magic Leap.
The goal behind Google Glass seems to be an attempt at wearable computing, which has worked for Apple, selling 30 million Apple Watches a year and being a larger watch brand over Rolex and all major watch companies combined.
The difference though is just common sense.
People like wearing watches, but don’t like glasses.
32% of American’s wear watches regularly.
Glasses are so unpopular, that one in six people with vision issues will choose contacts, that are more expensive and a pain to put in, just due to not liking glasses.
Glasses aren’t popular and Google for now over a decade has tried to evolve a product category which hasn’t shown them much success and I don’t believe ever will.