4 ms·

It's dead as a door nail to any owner who wants an update after paying $1500. It's dead for any developer who wants to write a consumer app since consumers can'

by lnanek2 11y ago

It's dead as a door nail to any owner who wants an update after paying $1500. It's dead for any developer who wants to write a consumer app since consumers can't buy them. It's dead for any startup that wants investment to write something consumer facing. B2B, well, there already are HMDs for B2B, so Google isn't really bringing anything innovative there. Hell, there are already HMDs made for specific uses like firemen and policemen vs. HMDs made for other things, so Google can't even beat all of them with one product. After the poor support the original received, I can't really in good conscience even recommend a company go with Google, although I admit TI end of life-ing the OMAP and firing everyone didn't leave them much choice. I've worked on OMAP solutions after that and it is a nightmare, the only solution often being hiring an expensive consultancy that has some of the original employees who know things the manuals are light on.

stickfigure 11y ago
This is not really a fair characterization. Glass was "dead" as a consumer product even before it was released. I'm old enough to remember the blowback that the first generation of cellphone users got ("coke-snorting 80s douchebags"). I remember people explaining how they didn't want to be reachable. It took a while for cellphones to seep into our collective consciousness, and glass will be the same. After glass gains acceptance as a work tool, it will creep back into the consumer space. And people that threw around the term "glassholes" are going to look shortsighted and pathetic in retrospect.
- thaumaturgy 11y ago
  I'm in my late thirties and was among the first generation of daily cell phone owners once the bulky bricks were replaced by flip phones. I don't recall the same reactions that you do. There are still a lot of people who don't own or regularly use a cell phone and others who prefer not to be reachable all the time, that hasn't really changed. Glass's popularity in the consumer market at some point in the possible future will hinge on whatever conversation a future generation has about the expectations of privacy in public spaces. Until that conversation happens, Glass isn't really viable as a consumer product.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    That's because your cell phone at the time didn't come with a camera that faced the people you were talking to in real life (rather than on the other end of the phone or just facing your way). I do remember being weirded out the first time someone walking parallel to me was talking to an ear-piece (out of sight) and I thought he was addressing me, hilarity ensued and he showed me his cell phone which I thought was absolutely wonderful (Motorola flip phone).
    - thaumaturgy 11y ago
      Those earpieces still weird me out a little. :-) But I keep a good humor about being in a supermarket full of cyborgs.
  - ghshephard 11y ago
    Re: "There are still a lot of people who don't own or regularly use a cell phone and others who prefer not to be reachable all the time" Well, I'll grant you that there are still some people - but I think it's a stretch to say, a lot of people. For example, in Singapore, it's inconceivable to not have a cell phone. Indeed, a ton of the businesses, banking, etc.. presume you have a cell phone for their two-factor authentication.
    - thaumaturgy 11y ago
      I was thinking primarily of older people; the odds of owning a smartphone decrease as you go into the 50+ age brackets, and cell phone ownership in general falls off as you go into 65+ (http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/ http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fac...). That Pew page states that 10% of American adults still don't own a cell phone, but of those who do, I would expect there's a healthy percentage for whom the cell phone is infrequently used as an emergency contact system, or just-in-case for road trips, or for the occasional phone call. (They don't have numbers on usage patterns though.) I couldn't hazard a guess at what worldwide usage looks like. I'm surprised every time I hear about the creative ways that countries I would least expect to be heavy cell phone users are using cheap cells for things like currency exchange (http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/11/cashless-africa-kenyas-smash-success-with-mobile-money.html http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/11/cashless-africa-kenyas-smash-...).
- ghshephard 11y ago
  I guarantee you that for at least the next 10, possibly 20 years, there will not be a consumer product that involves sticking a camera/tiny monitor on your face. Google killed that product space completely with their initial incredibly flawed roll out. The number of news reports of people being beaten down in bars for being glassholes, and the picture of scoble in a shower wearing his google-glass burned into all nerds brains has scorched that product space for the forseeable future. Which is unfortunate, because the concept of a HUD always available, and always recording, I think would be a really excellent technological innovation that I would totally take advantage of - if only I could avoid the extreme social outcast component.
chaostheory 11y ago
I was talking about Google Glass as a platform and product line and not the very first model. Correct me if my memory is wrong (it's been wrong before recently), but I remember Google explicitly mentioning that this is a beta product; kind of like the current Oculus Rift releases so I'm not really too surprised at the current situation.

by lnanek2 11y ago

stickfigure 11y ago

This is not really a fair characterization. Glass was "dead" as a consumer product even before it was released. I'm old enough to remember the blowback that the first generation of cellphone users got ("coke-snorting 80s douchebags"). I remember people explaining how they didn't want to be reachable. It took a while for cellphones to seep into our collective consciousness, and glass will be the same. After glass gains acceptance as a work tool, it will creep back into the consumer space. And people that threw around the term "glassholes" are going to look shortsighted and pathetic in retrospect.

thaumaturgy 11y ago
I'm in my late thirties and was among the first generation of daily cell phone owners once the bulky bricks were replaced by flip phones. I don't recall the same reactions that you do. There are still a lot of people who don't own or regularly use a cell phone and others who prefer not to be reachable all the time, that hasn't really changed. Glass's popularity in the consumer market at some point in the possible future will hinge on whatever conversation a future generation has about the expectations of privacy in public spaces. Until that conversation happens, Glass isn't really viable as a consumer product.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  That's because your cell phone at the time didn't come with a camera that faced the people you were talking to in real life (rather than on the other end of the phone or just facing your way). I do remember being weirded out the first time someone walking parallel to me was talking to an ear-piece (out of sight) and I thought he was addressing me, hilarity ensued and he showed me his cell phone which I thought was absolutely wonderful (Motorola flip phone).
  - thaumaturgy 11y ago
    Those earpieces still weird me out a little. :-) But I keep a good humor about being in a supermarket full of cyborgs.
- ghshephard 11y ago
  Re: "There are still a lot of people who don't own or regularly use a cell phone and others who prefer not to be reachable all the time" Well, I'll grant you that there are still some people - but I think it's a stretch to say, a lot of people. For example, in Singapore, it's inconceivable to not have a cell phone. Indeed, a ton of the businesses, banking, etc.. presume you have a cell phone for their two-factor authentication.
  - thaumaturgy 11y ago
    I was thinking primarily of older people; the odds of owning a smartphone decrease as you go into the 50+ age brackets, and cell phone ownership in general falls off as you go into 65+ (http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/ http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fac...). That Pew page states that 10% of American adults still don't own a cell phone, but of those who do, I would expect there's a healthy percentage for whom the cell phone is infrequently used as an emergency contact system, or just-in-case for road trips, or for the occasional phone call. (They don't have numbers on usage patterns though.) I couldn't hazard a guess at what worldwide usage looks like. I'm surprised every time I hear about the creative ways that countries I would least expect to be heavy cell phone users are using cheap cells for things like currency exchange (http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/11/cashless-africa-kenyas-smash-success-with-mobile-money.html http://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/11/cashless-africa-kenyas-smash-...).
ghshephard 11y ago
I guarantee you that for at least the next 10, possibly 20 years, there will not be a consumer product that involves sticking a camera/tiny monitor on your face. Google killed that product space completely with their initial incredibly flawed roll out. The number of news reports of people being beaten down in bars for being glassholes, and the picture of scoble in a shower wearing his google-glass burned into all nerds brains has scorched that product space for the forseeable future. Which is unfortunate, because the concept of a HUD always available, and always recording, I think would be a really excellent technological innovation that I would totally take advantage of - if only I could avoid the extreme social outcast component.

chaostheory 11y ago

I was talking about Google Glass as a platform and product line and not the very first model. Correct me if my memory is wrong (it's been wrong before recently), but I remember Google explicitly mentioning that this is a beta product; kind of like the current Oculus Rift releases so I'm not really too surprised at the current situation.