There’s been a lot of speculation about Google Glass over the last few months, in fact, it’s had a lot of us in a bit of a tizzy. We don’t always deal with change so wonderfully, and Google Glass had all of us wondering if we were ready for the future. An article by Yahoo! News recently delved into the current state of Glass and what its future looks like. Whether we want to accept change or not, it happens. For awhile there, every time an application of ours would update–say Facebook, Twitter, iOS, etc.–we would all freak out and complain about how much we loathed the changes. But we got used to it, right? Right. We forgot what the old layout of Facebook even looks like at this point. As a matter of fact, we don’t seem to complain all that much about app updates anymore. Huh. So when I read this article it got me thinking.
When I first heard of Google Glass my immediate reaction was “oh no…this is the future,” with a rather loathsome tone. To me, it just seemed like a matter of time before we were all wearing Google Glass, capturing far too many photos, videos (even more than now…which let’s be honest, is a little too much), and being in a state of constant connection. But that future may not be as close as we thought.
Authors Alexei Oreskovic, Sarah McBride and Malathi Nayak of “Google Glass future clouded as some early believers lose faith” analyze where Google Glass is at now, and where it might be headed. In the beginning, Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, is reported to have shown up “bare-faced into a Silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday.” It’s noted that he “left his pair in the car.” But this has me wondering…is it just not catching on? Even with the employees of Google itself? Maybe.
Besides questioning the lack of Glass worn by Google co-founders, employees, and other important big-wigs, the main focus of the article was around the application developors for Glass. Where are they now? The article goes into some small detail about the many of the developors who have abandoned their current projects and work for Google Glass. Why? Most of them say because there’s nothing to work towards, no movement, no future. My initial thoughts on this are that of an internal gloating–“Hoorah! We won’t have to wear these stupid glasses around! It’s not going to catch on!”–but regardless of these intial exclamations from me personally, my second thought is, “Well if this isn’t the future (or what’s next), then what is?
Google claims that Glass is still in the works and going strong. But we’ve been waiting on the launch of Google Glass for 2+ years. The hype surrounding it has significantly died down, and we’ve moved on to worrying about the iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, and the latest version of Instagram…or something like that. Here are my thoughts: I think Google Glass is a bust. Sure, glasses are trendy again and all, but does anyone really want to wear glasses that aren’t, well, glasses? No. Of course it’s not all about fashion, but also about how the technology works, but if consumers aren’t willing to sacrifice their style for Google Glass, then the technology doesn’t even really matter. It kind of seems like the developors are catching on. Secondly, the co-founder of Google isn’t even wearing the damn things. If Google can’t get its own, high-profile co-founder to wear them…who will? I’m not saying this guy influences all of the future of technology and fashion, but still. Third and most alarming, the developors are backing out! This in itself shows a lack of forward motion with Glass, and if that’s not an obvious sign, I don’t know what is. Last, we’ve got Google–proudly announcing that no, Google Glass isn’t dead, it’s just still developing, testing, etc. Seems a bit like improving the truth to me, Google. Even if Google Glass is still indeed developing and the future exists, what’s with the premature hype? We got our undies in a bunch for no reason (the consumers, at least), and now we’re just grouchy that we even cared in the first place.
So, while it remains unclear if Google Glass has a future or not, it seems as though we have awhile to wait before any sort of eye-wearable technology really launches to the general public. For those of us who are holding on for dear life to our iPhone’s, Samsung Galaxy’s, hell, even Blackberry’s, the future isn’t looking so scary anymore…just a little bleak for Google Glass, and we don’t mind.
And now I can sit back and go back to complaining about those app updates. I mean, iOS 8 really won’t download on my iPhone 4?! (see what I did there?)
Let me know what your thoughts on Google Glass are in the comments below.
thatrealmaya 