Google lastly killed off its Google Glass AR headset
Back in 2013, Google attempted to get way ahead of the augmented reality game with its Google Glass headset. Despite the fact that initially billed as a tech game changer, the $1,500 price tag tag and privacy issues produced it a wholesale industrial flop. But in spite of some belated results amongst health-related pros and initially responders by means of Google’s 2017 Glass Enterprise revamp, the significantly-memed item by no means seriously broke by means of to the masses. Yesterday, Google officially announced the demise of its Glass item line.
According to a enterprise statement, headsets are no longer obtainable for acquire, whilst help for Glass Enterprise Edition will continue by means of mid-September of this year. “Thank you for more than a decade of innovation and partnership,” writes Google, in the short finish to a single of the far more infamous modern day tech rollouts.
[Related: Doctors are wearing the new Google Glass while seeing patients.]
Initially resembling frameless eyewear, Google’s headset incorporated a compact, rectangular, transparent glass (therefore the name) above the wearer’s correct eye. A miniature onboard laptop method beamed bits of details by means of the prism. Customers could then make use of attributes like map directions, photo and video capabilities, and climate forecasts in front of them whilst preserving a clear vision of their surrounding, true-globe atmosphere. Future iterations resembled protective eyewear styles, and had been typically utilized in industries such as factory manufacturing.
The announcement most likely comes as no surprise to most—alongside a “Wait, Google nevertheless produced these?” from many others—as the Significant Tech giant’s final edition of Glass Enterprise came out virtually 4 years’ ago in 2019 alongside a $999 price tag tag. Given that then, Google’s chief rivals at Meta and Apple have poured huge amounts of money into their personal respective AR projects. In 2021, Meta collaborated with Ray-Ban to release camera-embedded sunglasses, albeit with no augmented show attributes, and (till not too long ago) was going all in on pushing a “metaverse” knowledge by means of its Meta Quest headset line. Meanwhile, Apple is broadly reported to be on the cusp of rolling out its personal wearable AR/VR item line.
[Related: Best VR headsets in 2023.]
As CNBC also notes, the demise of Glass in no way indicates Google is out of the AR game—far from it, in reality. Final summer season, the enterprise unveiled a new prototype iteration of augmented reality eyewear, though specifics like a release window, price tag point, or even a name have but to be announced. What ever its name may perhaps be, probably it will not be as uncomplicated to turn into a snarky pun as Google Glass.
