Wearables are hot! That’s fairly obvious, when you consider how smart watches and fitness trackers continue to gain sales. One manufacturer or another seems to offer a new wearable every week. But, Google Glass, the product that began the wearable market, seems to have lost a ton of favor. Especially among developers.
A month ago, Twitter halted development work on it’s Glass app. While Adriana Vecchioli, who created the Find.it app for Glass said that she has reduced the time that she spends on the app, due to people resisting wearing Glass or reacting negatively to others wearing it, since the device can snap a photo without the photographee (yes, that’s my own word) even being aware of it.
Last week, Reuters reported that it had contacted 16 Glass developers and nine of them had stopped work on their app. John Jackson, mobile technology analyst at research company IDC, said, “This isn’t something that’s going to catch fire with consumers. It’s niche because of its high price ($1500.00), the lack of social acceptance and questionable aesthetics. When consumers failed to embrace the device, developers backed off.” He adds, “Developers like cutting edge stuff but ultimately they’re slaves to volume, in terms of the number of devices being used.” And, after attending a conference for Glass developers in San Francisco last month, Sterling Udell, another developer, left feeling that Glass in it’s current form has failed as a consumer device. He has also stopped working on his app. On Friday, Udell wrote in a blog, “At best, it’s seen as a geeky toy, and at worst, a privacy-invading tool of the Googleplex. Wearables are hot — as long as they’re not Glass.”
Google still has more than 300 people working on Glass, though some managers, developers and executives have exited the project. And the oft-mentioned consumer release keeps being postponed. All-in-all, the future of Google Glass seems to be dimming month after month IMHO. Maybe Mountainview can still make it a success, but it looks less likely as time goes on.
Source: The Australian
Began writing for Bane-Tech August 2014, due to an ever-growing passion for mobile and Android in particular.
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