My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: @googleglass Explorer Program as they go Enterprise against @Microsoft @Hololens

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

@googleglass Explorer Program as they go Enterprise against @Microsoft @Hololens

 The death of Google Glass has been greatly exaggerated despite the words of the article “Dear Google Glass, bye for now (and maybe forever)”, published January 17, 2015 4:18 PM PST by Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News, Google Glass is far from dead.



Google halted sales of the US$1,500 Google Glass Explorer edition on Monday January 19th 2015 as stated in the article “Google Will Stop Selling Glass Next Week”, published Jan. 15, 2015 by Victor Luckerson, Time.

So says the Google Glass Press Release entitled “We’re Graduating from Google Labs

The Google Glass Team has also been relocated from under the Google X Project to become its own separate project under the leadership of Google Glass Manager Ivy Ross as noted in the article “Google Glass sales halted but firm says kit is not dead”, published 15 January 2015, BBC News.

More interestingly, Google Glass’s Manager will be reporting to Tony Fadel, the magician behind the Apple iPod and then his own company Nest that makes the self-learning Thermostat of the same name and the Nest Protect, the equally annoying Internet connected Fire Alarm as stated in the article “Google Glass gets a new boss, the man behind the iPod and Nest”, published January 15, 2015 10:21 AM PST by Richard Nieva, CNET News.

Naturally of course with such shifting, there will be shakeups and movements among Google’s Many Engineers as they get transferred between departments as detailed in the article “REPORT: There's an engineer shakeup happening within Google Glass”, published FEB. 23, 2015, 9 by LISA EADICICCO, Business Insider.

Google Glass Explorer Program ends – Glass now separate from Google X Labs as Enterprise take interest

And according to Tony Fadell, this time there will be no public testing of Google Glass, exposing the company to ridicule or Explorers to harassment about invasion of Privacy, even though smartphones have cameras with video capability.

Irony, as with smartphones, people literally spy on themselves and allow social Networks to collect information of their interests, who they’ve been with and their actual location at any particular point in time. These are the main reasons why I personally dislike smartphones as noted in my blog article entitled “The Reason why I don't like Smartphones - Location Privacy and How to disable Location Services on Android and iOS”.



Apparently most people forgot that the US$1,500 price tag was aimed at persons who wanted to be on the bleeding Edge of Tech and it really was for the Public to try out, not necessarily as a finished product.

After all, the glasses aren’t stylish enough, hence why they took Luxottica  to make it more prêt-a-porter as noted in my blog article entitled “Google Glass partners with Luxottica to design Google Glasses for 2015 Launch - Google Glass now on the Path to going Mainstream with US$199 Glasses”.

So from here on out, they’ll be strictly tested by Developers as well as their growing list of business partners, who have already found the product useful as noted in the article “Google Glass 2 prototypes reportedly already in the hands of developers”, published Feb 23, 2015 at 9:45 PM By Jacob Siegal, BGR

Instead, the Google at Work initiative will continue, with an aim to introduce Google Glass in the workplace, where it actually has more use among US Army personnel and Medical doctors.

This shift towards focusing on Enterprise customers may be the reason why they decided to get Intel as their Processor manufacturer to guarantee their supply as noted in my blog article entitled “Google Glass with Intel Chips - US$199 Google Glass Plus coming as Intel Core M 14nm Processor shrinks Battery for US Army and Medical Doctor Demand”.

Google Glass for Consumers will Return - More Apps, Cheaper price to compete with Microsoft HoloLens

All of this movement within Google fits with the idea that they’re getting a huge demand for orders of Google Glass from Enterprise customers. Google had to take their focus away from their Explorer Program to focus on making Glass for these clients, who apparently want a lot of them in very lucrative long term deals.



Developers will develop more Apps and cheaper versions will herald the return of Google Glass to consumers as predicted in the article “Google's Teller says Glass and other wearables need to be cheaper”, published November 17, 2014 10:53 AM PST by Richard Nieva, CNET News and “Google Glass - a fascinating failure?”, published 27 May 2014, BBC News.

When this will be is a bit of an unknown, but they’ll definitely have to return soon, as the competition is heating up now that the Microsoft HoloLens seem to be making all the right moves towards VR (Virtual Reality) as noted in the article “Microsoft HoloLens Gets Face Wearables Right”, published 1/28/2015 by Patrick Moorhead, Forbes.

And yes, it will replace the smartphone as I’d predicted in my blog article entitled

So Google Glass isn’t dead……It’s just shifting Gears from being a consumer product to being something that the Enterprise World and the US Military always wanted: a True Wearable computer.

Here’s the link:

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