Is Google Glass Finally Dead and Buried?

Will Google Glass rest in peace? Google on Wednesday stopped selling its enterprise version of the wearable device after failing nearly a decade ago to gain any traction with consumers.

Glass Enterprise succeeded Google Glass, a consumer version of the tech discontinued in 2015. That device initially went on the market in 2013, with developers and early adopters known as Google Glass Explorers paying $1,500 to test the new tech. RetailWire BrainTrust panelist Karen Herman was among the early testers.

Many critics expressed discomfort being on the other side of wearable technology that could record them without their knowledge. Ms. Herman’s experience was quite different, as described in a first-person account on RetailWire in 2013.

“When I go out in public, the response from passersby is one of delight and true curiosity at how Glass works and what it does,” she wrote in October 2013. “People are genuinely interested when I explain my use of Glass is mostly hands-free. I activate the device with a head motion and use voice commands to make phone calls, send text messages, visit YouTube and get directions while driving. I also use Glass to do comparison shop while in stores. After learning these details, most everyone asks when they will be able to buy Glass.”

Hopes were high for the Glass device to find its niche in business enterprise environments even as Google bowed out of the consumer market in 2015. A FirstPost article from that time cited use of the device by police in Dubai and medical practitioners as real-world examples of Glass in action.

The latest hardware update to Glass Enterprise took place in 2019, CNBC reports.

Major rivals, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, continue to invest in augmented reality tech, including some glass devices, even as Google is walking away from its Glass Enterprise.

Google, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Popular Science, plans to keep working on augmented reality eyewear devices despite raising the white flag on Glass.

More of the tech giant’s resources have been focused on generative artificial intelligence tech of late following OpenAI and Microsoft’s splash with ChatGPT.

Google parent Alphabet laid off 12,000 workers in January.

“These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a message to employees.

• Glass — Google

• Google Glass: A First-Person Account — RetailWire

• Even the Guy Who Designed the iPod May Not Be Able to Save Google Glass — Wired

• Google Glass in suspended animation: But will it see new life at the workplace? — Firstpost

• Google ends enterprise sales of Google Glass, its augmented reality smartglasses — CNBC

• RIP (again): Google Glass will no longer be sold — Ars Technica

• Google Glass is finally shattered — Popular Science