Google Making Big Changes to Google Glass, Ending Explorer Program
From the WSJ:
Google Inc. is making big changes to its troubled Glass wearable-computing project, giving a former Apple Inc. executive oversight of the initiative as the Internet giant grapples with the best way to expand from its software roots into hardware.
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Google will stop selling the initial version of Glass to individuals through its Explorer program after Jan. 19. Google will still sell Glass to companies and developers for work applications.
From the BBC:
The Glass team will also move out of the Google X division which engages in “blue sky” research, and become a separate undertaking, under its current manager Ivy Ross.
She and the Glass team will report to Tony Fadell, the chief executive of the home automation business Nest, acquired by Google a year ago.
From a Commentary by BBC Tech Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones:
Google has tried to present this announcement as just another step in the evolution of an amazing innovation. But make no mistake – Google Glass is dead, at least in its present form.
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But Google will now have to deal with a disgruntled community of Explorers who paid a large sum for a device which they must have believed would eventually evolve into something more useful.
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.