Is the Glass Half Full Or Half Empty? Google Glass May Not See A Consumer Release Date

After two years of hearing the stories of peoples privacy being invaded, people shooting amazing video and photos, and people popping up left and right looking like very spy worthy after getting their hands on the test version of the product. Google doesnt quite know if there is a bright future for the product.

Sergey Brin, who heads up the top-secret lab that developed Glass, has hardly given up on the product, he still is sporting the product to the beach as well as many other functions.

But Brin’s may be one of the only ones still holding out hope, seeing as many developers and early Glass users have lost interest in the very largely hyped, $1,500 test version: a camera, processor, and thumb-sized computer screen mounted to the edge of the frames. Google has pushed back a mass market rollout of the product.

While Glass may find itself held dear to some, developers and Google dont seem to be so optimistic about the product gaining much more ground in the near future.

Of 16 Glass app makers contacted by Reuters, nine said they had stopped work on their projects or abandoned them, mostly because the slim amount of customers and quite a few device limitations.

“If there was 200 million Google Glasses sold, it would be a different perspective. There’s no market at this point,” said Tom Frencel, the chief executive of Little Guy Games, which stopped their developement of a Glass game this year and is looking at other platforms.

Many developers who have lost interested have focused on more promising head wear like Facebooks Oculus Rift.

Several key Google employees who had been working on Glass since the beginning have parted ways with the company in the last six months, including lead developer Babak Parviz, electrical engineering chief Adrian Wong, and Ossama Alami, director of developer relations.

Google says it is still commited to glass and hasnt put the project completely in the bag yet. With hundreds of people working on it, as well as new head boss Ivy Ross, former Calvin Klein executive.

“We are completely energized and as energized as ever about the opportunity that wearables and Glass in particular represent,” said Chris O’Neill Head of Business Operations.

Glass was one of the first to really gain a lot of traction when it comes to wearables. Glass and other wearable devices make up a whole new step forward in technology, as smartphones once were, it will take time to evolve the product into something that is more affordable and that consumers feel they have to have.

“We are as committed as ever to a consumer launch. That is going to take time, and we are not going to launch this product until it’s absolutely ready,” O’Neill said.

Brin predicted a 2014 launch, but now its looking more like a 2015 or maybe 2016 consumer launch would seem more logical.

In April 2014, Google launched "Glass at Work" a program to help make glass more useful to specific industries, such as architecture and manufacturing.

Google is selling Glass in bulk to some businesses, offering two-for-one discounts.

Alex Foster began See Through, a Glass advertising analytics firm for business, after financee earlier this year pulled back an offer to provide the funding for a Glass fitness company when it became clear that a consumer release was not going to be happening soon.

“It was devastating,” he said. “All of the consumer glass startups are either completely dead or have pivoted,” to enterprise products or rival wearables.

Its sad that such an amazingly innovative product may never make it to the shelves of your local Best Buy or other well known tech store. But all in all Google Glass was made as a step towards the future of wearables and it has done just that. Because of Glass and other products the like, developers and consumers have started looking ahead to the not so distant times when your computer is in your sun glasses and your car drives itself.

Let us know what you think is in the future for Google Glass in the comments below