BBC Reports on a Google Glass Rival From Taiwan, Company Hopes to Sell Product For Around $500

From a BBC Article:

A hitherto obscure maker of memory chips and network equipment, ChipSip, has nabbed Computex’s Best Choice award for a pair of smart glasses that aim to steal the market away from Google Glass.
It would be the greatest coup since China’s Lenovo, another company from this part of the world, overtook Hewlett-Packard in PC sales.
In its favour, ChipSip is targeting a $500 (£300) retail price for its SiMEye – pronounced “see me” – Smart Glass kit, which is a third of the sum Google is currently charging early adopters in the US.
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ChipSip touts its ability to download Android apps direct from Google’s Play Store via SiMEye’s user interface. By contrast Glass requires an owner to first download an app via another Android device before it can be transferred to the eyewear.
And SiMEye can also capture video in 1080p, four times the resolution of it rival.

Read the Complete Article (via BBC)
Direct to ChipSip Web Site
See Also: Annotated Image of SimEye
See Also: News Release About SiMEye’s Award at Computex
infoDOCKET Comments
A few thoughts. Even if the tech the BBC is reporting on is as good or could be better/more useful than Google Glass means little. Not even close.
We know that the best product/service don’t always succeed and stay around. Of course, best for me doesn’t mean best for you but that’s another story.
The bigger challenge especially when trying to compete with Google is often about gaining notice, mindshare, and usage if only getting people to give the product/service a test drive.
I speak from experience on this one from my days at Ask.com. Perhaps I’ll reflect more on this in another post.
Google is a brilliant marketer and that’s an understatement. Plus, they have the resources (both financial and human) to play hardball.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done (and is done) but it’s a major challenge. Of course, this would change if the company developing the technology is acquired or partners with a well-known player like Apple, Amazon, Samsung, etc.
Another scenario could be Google or other companies developing Glass-like products acquiring the small “obscure” company to not only eliminate them from the marketplace but to gain their technology and perhaps more importantly, their developers.
Yes, you can compete and grow even with Google being Google especially in consumer products and services.
Google was offering movie/tv downloads before iTunes and Netflix were what they are today.
Google offers digital book downloads, music downloads and other services today but Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and others are often the market leaders. This doesn’t mean what Google offers are quality services just making a point about competing with G.
Of course, to some degree, Google still makes money from competitors in non-search areas. Examples? Amazon’s Kindle and Samsung’s tablets are two of many examples. Huh? Both of these products AND MANY MORE use Google’s Android technology.
Finally, while Google is now THE verb when it comes to search and research for most people it in no way means that specialty search tools and databases aren’t useful, important, and more than worthy of our attention and use.
To put it library terms, library’s would often (some still do) have several reference books with, for the most part, the same info in them. However, each would be organized, indexed, updated in different ways and times. Using the right tool at the right time was and is still is key perhaps even more so in the world of electronic databases and digital tools/apps.

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