Google Glass on sale for a day: first thoughts

Yesterday, April 15, if you were resident in the United States and were in the mood to spend $1,500, you had, for one day only, the opportunity to buy Google Glass. The initiative, aimed at gauging potential demand for this gadget, seems to have been a relative success, although only the company itself will know for sure. The white model ran out fairly quickly, but Google has not disclosed any information about what this means exactly in terms of real sales.

What exactly is Google doing by providing this open day? In the first place it would seem reasonable to think that it was trying to see whether people were prepared to spend fifteen hundred bucks on a pair of Google Glass to try the thing out, or whether they intend to make regular use of it, which is where I have my doubts.

I have tried Google Glass out twice: once for half an hour in a public place, and then for three days running. In short, I liked the idea of wearing them occasionally, and useful for some things, but not sufficiently so to wear them all the time.

The first question we might want to ask ourselves is whether Google Glass is comfortable for everyday use, or say, for running while having your parameters displayed literally before your eyes? And the answer is yes. But if the question is whether it is easier simply to wear a smartwatch that affords the same information with greater comfort, or even to take one’s smartphone out, then the answer is also yes.

Can one wear Google Glass while driving and receiving GPS information? Yes. But one can also receive that information on a smartphone located on the dashboard. And they are distracting, even after you get used to the interface. Then there are the headaches that come with sustained use, or simply the danger of being called a glasshole, and which can even lead to being attacked.

In all honesty, after having tried the things out, I am not sure I would buy myself a pair of Google Glasses. Well, I probably would, but that’s because I like trying new stuff out rather than any belief that they have much of a future. The idea of putting a screen right in front of our eyes so as to be able to access information at all times has made us think about a number of related issues, and perhaps even to come to terms with the idea of wearables, or even simply to wonder what Google is up to vis a vis its hardware strategy, but I do not believe that it has been able to generate much real expectation in this case.

For the moment, Google Glass seems to me more like a virtuous circle than a viable product for the mass market: it provides developers with something to do, is ideal for people who want the world to know that they are up to date, or simply for carrying out a wide range of experiments so as to find a use for them.

Which raises the next question: is Google Glass going to be a flop? For the moment, it is hard to see what conclusions Google can draw from its one-day sale: even if the thing sold like hot cakes, this could simply reflect demand from people attracted by the novelty, rather than its appeal to a mass market.

And if it turns out that not even well-to-do technogeeks were queuing up to buy them, then Google may well have to go back to the drawing board, or rethink its pricing, or it may just draw the conclusion that this one isn’t going to fly.

My impression at the moment is that Google Glass is still a long way off being a mature product. It may have some particular uses for professionals who need or wish to share information in certain situations, but this wouldn’t necessarily be a market as such. They seem to me to more an experiment (in both the technology and the social arena) in defining a category rather than an item destined for the mass market. The many limitations that I experienced when wearing them made me feel more like a pioneer trying out the early stages of a design rather than a user assessing a fully developed product. The design, which initially appeared brilliant, is not that practical for everyday use. It may be that I didn’t use the right apps, or that I didn’t give them a proper chance, but I still feel that these are still little more than an experiment. That said, I could be wrong, as has often been the case. Let’s see where this one goes.

(En español, aquí)