Google Glass: It Ain’t Dead Yet, Says Eric Schmidt
Much like Jon Lovitz, Mark Twain and disco, the reports of Google Glass’ death have apparently been greatly exaggerated.
It only seems like months ago that we were all mourning the withdrawal of Google Glass from purchase. That’s to say, if you were an influential member of the press, a developer who’s a big deal or had a titan-sized social media presence, you’d be offered the change to join the Explorer Program. But wait, there’s more — for the price $1,500, you had the privilege looking like Locutus of Borg or being too sexy for tech, depending on who you asked.
In late January, Google pulled Glass from its inventory. The tech press came not to bury Google Glass, but to praise it…though some really did just want to bury it. (So much for living in the future. All we have left are these lousy smartphones and smartwatches.)
But Google Executive Chairmain Eric Schmidt went on record today saying the glass project is too important to scrap, kind of like a zombie Wall Street bank is too important to shoot in the head. Though people assumed that Google Glass moving to Google X is the equivalent of your childhood pet going to a farm in the country, Schmidt insists it’s still a very big deal.
“We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true. Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
In totally unrelated news, the Apple Watch is going to be released in about a month. So…no connection there. (Cough*wearables*cough*wearables)