This second death of Google Glass was inevitable. Is it possible to be twice ahead of your time? Or do you have to admit at a certain point that you are in an alternate timeline?
This is what we know for sure: the world I wasn't ready for Glass yet, even after a product makeover and focus shift, with confirmed plans by Google, and once again ending support for their misunderstood bit of AR technology. They wrote:
Thank you for over a decade of innovation and partnership. As of March 15, 2023, we will no longer sell the Glass Enterprise Edition. We will continue to support Glass Enterprise Edition until September 15, 2023.
Not a completely interrupted decade, of course. Glass celebrated its 2023th anniversary in February 2013. The original developer version launched in February 2014, began its Glass Explorers program two months later, and finally opened to the public in May XNUMX. There were parodies later. Less than a year later, he announced that former Apple designer and Nest co-founder Tony Fadell was working on a sequel and remake.
Google Glass disappeared for a bit in 2015, thanking Explorers for playing along. Apparently, the rumors of his death had been a bit exaggerated, or at least premature. Specifically, Google Glass was shifting its focus to the enterprise. Really, that's another way the product line was ahead of its time. HoloLens was launched a year later by Microsoft, with business as its central thesis. And these days, the likes of Meta, HTC, and Magic Leap see the category as a saving grace on the road to AR/VR/MR integration.
Makes sense. There is a lot of money to be made by selling these products to wholesale companies. And IT departments are often willing to shell out more for products than the average consumer. A second enterprise edition arrived in 2019 with some modest updates.
The timing and apparent purpose of this announcement are interesting. Much of the industry is waiting to see what Apple delivers later this year with its rumored mixed reality headsets. Of course, Google is rumored to be working on a new AR product under the code name Project Iris, according to a report since the beginning of last year:
Early prototypes being developed at a San Francisco Bay Area facility resemble a pair of ski goggles and do not require a tethered connection to an external power source.
Presumably the product would be a more direct competitor to XR products, including Apple. Google has also had its own checkered past with VR products, including Cardboard and Daydream. The latter was discontinued in 2019, the former finally ending its life in 2021.
