Google Glass Remains A Contender For Enterprise
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Although Google announced that it would stop sales of the Google Glass to the public on January 19, marking an end to the Explorer program for Glass, the company also stated that development on the product is not over, and that future versions would be released when they were ready.
Instead of an ending, to the contrary, it seems more like the beginning, as Glass apparently has found a permanent home in enterprise. An article from The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is continuing to sell Glass to businesses and developers for work applications.
“Google Glass is a great example of good product looking for a problem,” Ian Campbell, CEO of Nucleus Research told PC World.
“The future of Glass is that it becomes a tool for how you do work,” Det Ansinn, founder of BrickSimple, a developer of workplace apps for Glass and other devices, told PC World. For example, engineers fixing industrial equipment can benefit from a hands-free computer that puts information directly in their field of vision. And surgeons have filmed their operations for distance learning.
Google said it is moving Glass out of its Google X labs and into a standalone product division. Oversight of Glass has been transferred to Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who helped develop the iPod, and who now runs Nest Labs, the smart-home company Google bought last year.
“Google, by doing this, confirms that Glass isn’t dead,” said Kyle Samani, CEO of Pristine, which develops Glass apps for health care, education, and other areas.
One startup CEO says he isn’t worried about the end of the Explorer program. Augmedix CEO Ian Shakil told Fortune, “It really comes as no surprise to us. The Explorer program had to come to a conclusion at some point, and Google remains very committed to Glass At Work, which is what matters most to us.”
Shakil said that he has been assured of an “unfettered supply” of Google Glass in the future, meaning that Google obviously intends to continue supplying Glass to enterprise customers, despite the (temporary?) end of its consumer experiment.