Price when you order your Glass

As an FYI… price may be $1500, but tax will be another $105 (will vary by state probably!). Also, you can get optional shades or clear lens.

Additional cost items include:

  • stereo earbuds
  • extra mono earbud
  • extra charger
  • soft carry case
  • misc stuff/etc

oh! its about Google glass. At first, I thought why this guy is spamming :o

Is it going to be available worldwide? Or only in the U.S for a while?

I ve got the feeling these glasses will be a failure, they just look so… ridiculous… Anyone else does ??

If it’s only available in the U.S. at release date, I’m going to be very disappointed.

I’d always imagined the final price would be reduced from the $1500 mark. That’s more than any smartphone (and most laptops) on the market today, so it doesn’t make much sense to me. If they can squeeze the cost down below $1k, it’s going to have a lot more appeal.

However, I don’t think it will go below $300 even if they could make it that cheap. There will most likely be supply constraints and bugs to iron out, so there’s not much benefit in making the product too appealing to the mass market at first launch. Better to focus on style and features first, then reduce the price in future iterations.

Yes, they do look ridiculous right now. If they never evolved any further, I’d totally agree. They’re way too nerdy and outlandish to be successful.

But I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Google’s taking a step forward into a market that doesn’t really exist yet - wearable computing. The form factor will evolve, new devices will come out, other companies will enter the playing field. Glass itself might never be successful. But the big thing for me is the concept - instead of carrying a computer with you, it becomes part of your clothing. And eventually, I fully expect these computers will be interfaced directly to our body as well.

To me, this whole thing is not a question of “if”, but “when” and “how”.

Recent news on Vuzix glasses:

Vuzix Smart Glasses Beat Google Glass to Market - Tom’s Guide
Vuzix Smart Glasses Beat Google Glass to Market
By Kevin Ohannessian
December 3, 2013 9:54 AM

And Samsung expected to issue something also eventually.

So could be the Google Glass stuff becomes like Nexus i.e. leading the way (I am assuming Google never wanted to be in control of this market - and become a hardware manufacturer anyway). That is, there maybe more to be made from advertising etc. (voice ads perhaps) - where have multiple hardware manufacturers filling the demand of the world - while Google makes money with minimal hardware-involvement etc. (i.e. more stable model and less risk with hardware - when there are better players out there).

However, with Google Glass how will the app model work - advertisements still ? Or paid apps mostly - because since this is always on, and screen small - it seems the interaction will have to be made as lean as possible.

@david: agreed.

I believe the US market could support a device in the $400-$600 range, discounted down to $200 for older models. This is the same as cell phones. There is a LOT of work to be done, not the least of which is battery life (apparently pretty bad right now!).

Think about it: before cell phones, the only things you always had with you were sunglasses and your watch. Now, with a cell phone, you no longer need a watch… but it is still a pretty natural/convenient place to have a device.

If I wanted to crystal-ball gaze, I would see that manufacturers are targeting these things as single devices. That shit needs to stop. They need to be a system and the design needs to be done appropriately. Your cell phone goes in your pocket and provides processing power, graphics and acts as a larger screen when needed. Glasses/wrist act as a smaller window for when you don’t need a full screen until we have the capability to do immersive full-view HUD’s. This means at the moment the glasses are good for guidance, timing, relevant information to queries/etc. But don’t expect full-view vision overlaid games.

Wearable computing is coming. After that implantable computing. Yes sir, we can replace your eye and give you 20/20 vision. However, if you would like to upgrade that unit, we can provide you with 20/20 vision, macro-focus ability and even infra-red for the same price with the new Amazon-All-Seeing-Eye. For an additional price we can remove the default advertising!

The question is: can you figure out how to make money off it ?

Right now, Google explicitly prohibits advertising of any kind on Glass. I’m not sure how long this will last, but my bets are on ads coming sooner rather than later. It’ll probably be in the form of sponsored messages (the Twitter client sends you ads between tweets), or local advertising (you’re near a Pizza Hut at lunch time and receive a notification). Will certainly be interesting to see what opportunities come up in this space.

For this reason, the Samsung foray into wrist watches (who uses one now ? except bankers ?) maybe relevant - if nothing else, then as an experiment in out-of-phone screen type stuff like Samsung is doing with it’s Gear watch.

The battery issue could be resolved with a wire and powerpack worn on the belt - or aux power from your phone via usb port (like currently you can power a usb mouse/keyboard using usb port on Samsung phones). So have a usb cable going from phone to your Google Glass. That should cover it for power.

But glasses are a real intrusion on your personality - not only that, but they change your LOOK. It maybe for those who wear glasses - but how many non-glass wearers will be keen to idea to change their whole look (how many glass-wearers have gone from glass to glass-free via eye-operations ?).

The only place where glasses shine is the display can actually augment the reality - photo taking and stuff which depends on stable camera-holding could also benefit.

But other than that, using wristwatch maybe simpler (sweaty wrists and all).

Eventually we may see Li-Ion “thermals” for use in colder countries - where the whole garment is lined with battery power packs - that would keep you warm as well as provide 1000W of power or something (!).

However, a huge safety hazard if that Li-Ion suit were to ignite (as can very rarely happen with Li-Ion batteries).

I wouldn’t mind having a pen that acts as a Wacom stylus for a tablet and at the same time as a phone (with a tablet or normal phone providing the connectivity and processing power). Asus was experimenting with things like that with their Phonepad. Only problem - you would look very stupid talking to a pen. :slight_smile:

Although stylus was not considered mainstream (Jobs was adamant not to have it - perhaps after their early Apple Newton fiasco) - but Samsung revitalized it - still not mainstream perhaps, but Samsung put a lot of energy into pushing it into mainstream.

Those who bought the Note probably grew to like the pen (still not perfect - for instance pen point registration varies depending on which orientation you hold the phone).

The question is: can you figure out how to make money off it ?

Make an IRL Ctrl+F app for highlighting products in supermarket, libraries… and we have a deal :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, they shipped it already…

And it arrived this morning…

Nice, I wonder if it will be useful for anything… GPS when on foot or bicycle maybe?

Not likely… I sit on my ass all day programming or going through contractor work.

i bought a pair :slight_smile:

(shipping will take around 1 month though)

I’ll wait for Google Robot - they’ve just bought Boston Dynamics: Boston Dynamics - YouTube

The glass just arrived :slight_smile: