This past weekend the somewhat geeky Google Glass went on sale at the Players Championship PGA event at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Google hosted a modest retail display and offered the wearable devices for $1500.
They also threw in a free miniature camera accessory for one’s golf club with every purchase of Google Glass during the event. The only reports of how many pair they actually sold range from ‘a few pair’ to ‘much better sales than expected.’
Even though Google Glass is still officially in beta the company has been leaking the devises to ‘Explorers’ (the general public) in drips and drabs. And even though reactions to the product range from ‘ooh that’s cool’ to ‘I would never buy one’ to ‘stop spying on me, bitch!’ people still seem to be snatching them up whenever they get the opportunity.
In a Google+ post a company representative said, “In the last six months, we’ve been amazed and inspired by our Explorers and the individual perspectives you bring. A few weeks ago, we opened up our site for a single day. The response was overwhelming – we almost ran out of inventory and had to close things down early. We’ve since built our inventory back up and plan to continue to accelerate new ways to expand the program in the weeks and months ahead. Our hope is to bring Glass to new Explorers, like optometrists, sports lovers, online retailers, cooks and travelers, who (like you!) can get in early and help make Glass better as part of our open beta, ahead of a wider consumer launch. These are exciting times and we’re glad to have you along for the ride – keep the feedback coming!”
(So much artificial sweetener in that post it makes my teeth hurt.)
I don’t know if Google Glasses will ever catch on in a big way.
(Oh, wait a minute! It’s my job to have opinions about everything. So…)
I don’t think that Google Glasses will ever catch on in a big way. I tend to go along with Mark Zuckerberg when he says that technology has to disappear in order to become truly useful. In other words, heads up displays can be very useful but putting on a pair of glasses is like, well, putting on a pair of glasses. When we can build something that can give us a heads up display without wearing a clunky piece of hardware that’s when things will get interesting.
Although, if Google Glass can figure out how to cure my slice or find my ball when it’s twenty yards deep in the trees then maybe…naw, $1500 could easily pay for a few lessons and a heck of a lot of new golf balls.
