The recent public appearance of its co-founder Google Sergey Brin without his Glasses, the postponement of his mood Google Glass to the general public in 2014, as he had earlier announced, the reshuffles in the staff of the secret laboratory that manufactures them, as well as the reservations that are now openly expressed by developers after the silent withdrawal of support from major investors, the now murky landscape surrounding the once famous Google Glass.
The #1 Googler, head of yet another "moonshot thinking" venture, had simply forgotten the Glasses in car, reportedly apologized to the reporter who spotted it on Sunday, November 14. Perhaps again, his choice is explained since he may have known how "alien" people like him appear to Keira Knightley, his protagonist Imitation Game. Brin was heading to the mansion of a wealthy Russian investor to watch, together with Mark Zackerberg and a few others, the private first viewing the film for Alan Turing in Silicon Valley.
However, on Google X -the Lab which deals with yet another unlikely venture, the cars without driver- employs about 300 people, led by Ivy Ross since March 2014, coming from the high rungs of Calvin Klein. In addition, since February 2013, when Google Glass began to be selectively available to would-be Explorers, the number of people wearing Glasses has exceeded ten thousand
However, despite Google's efforts to dispel the myths surrounding Google Glass, it seems that developers have not been persuaded to invest in app development. The fact that Google announced earlier that Glass "is not ready for prime time" was reason enough for many to back down. Reuters reports at least 9 to a set of 16 developers who have stopped the relevant project. On the other hand, he adds that, many, even older, remain loyal. Among them, the Facebook, but no longer Twitter, despite the fact that photos are still being published with the tag #throughglass (and from Greece). The glass-apps.org has not updated its content - a list of apps for Google Glass - since January of 2014.
The biggest blow to Google Glass was its collapse Glass Collective Google Ventures, along with two of the largest investment fund managers in the Silicon Valley, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz, had then announced financial support for start-ups that would develop for Glass. Today, however, glasscolective.com leads developers back to the top of the Google Glass website. "We chose to leave them entrepreneurs to come directly to us, "a spokesman for Google Ventures told Reuters.
Many think that "end of personal life" concerns undermine Google Glass's future and limit its use to other, vertical markets, such as surgery, a prospect that is at least one of the KPCB's major investors. In addition, in April 2014 launched a new Google Glass exploitation company, the Glass At Work (see some examples) to serve the needs of employees who do not work in a desk but need a ubiquitous computer.
