Google today announced that it was shutting down its Glass Explorer program on January 19. Launched at Google I/O in 2012, the program served as an “open beta” that allowed Google to learn how people used its smartglasses.
Explorers, we asked you to be pioneers, and you took what we started and went further than we ever could have dreamed: from the large hadron collider at CERN, to the hospital operating table; the grass of your backyard to the courts of Wimbledon; in fire stations, recording studios, kitchens, mountain tops and more.
Glass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk. Well, we still have some work to do, but now we’re ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run.
Since we first met, interest in wearables has exploded and today it’s one of the most exciting areas in technology.
With the end of the program just around the corner, Google is also stopping sales of Glass on January 19. At the same time, it is not the end for Googles’s smartglasses. Not only will the Glass at Work program live on but Google is already promising to continue to “build for the future, and you’ll start to see future versions of Glass when they’re ready.”
While Google did not reveal much more about its future plans, The Wall Street Journal reports that Glass is moving out from the Google X experimental department to a new business unit. Ivy Ross who currently heads up Glass will continue to do so and will now report to Tony Fadell who also heads Nest Labs, another Google division. Could this be a sign that Google feels that Glass will soon be ready for commercial release?
A new version of Google Glass is expected to launch in 2015. Perhaps it will be unveiled at Google I/O 2015.
Sources : +GoogleGlass // The Wall Street Journal