With Glass Basecamp closing down and the wearable device still nowhere in sight for consumers, has Google lost its fervour for the Glass headset?
When Google Glass was unveiled last year, every person with even the minutest enthusiasm for technology was interested. This subtle AR headset promised to deliver so much, meshing into our daily lives and allowing us to exercise, shop and communicate in a revolutionary way; but here we are, over eighteen months since its launch and we’re no nearer, it seems, to the project going gold.
We haven’t seen any more fun videos. There haven’t been any more hysterical privacy campaigners, talking about how our lives will be ruined. No more bans from cinema chains or other concerned businesses. We haven’t heard…much of anything, since Glass finally launched in the UK back in June.
In fact, there’s been little talk of fledgling technology for a while and recent reports that the search giant is closing its Basecamp stores in London, San Francisco, New York and L.A. haven’t filled our hearts with hope for Glass’ future, despite the company’s claims that everything’s peachy.
The closure of its US and UK-based stores is, Google say, due to their want to move the retail experience into the area in which it’s most active; online. However, web rumours claim that many developers, including Twitter, are seemingly losing interest in the augmented reality system, leading many to speculate on the future of Google Glass.
Of course, we could be overthinking things. Google Glass was always set up to be an experiment, rather than a brisk, pre-retail think tank, but the notion of a consumer product coming to market without major app support, off the back of diminished public interest appears to suggest otherwise.
Google is adamant that the technology hasn’t been abandoned though, so 2015 might be the year we finally get Google Glass as a finished article. It’s looking like a pretty big ‘might’ though.
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