The Google Glass social media accounts—including Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and others—have finally been shut down after many months of continued #throughGlass postings and “Happy [insert holiday]!” images. This doesn’t come as much surprise as plans to bring Glass to the consumer market (at least by that name) have long been abandoned, but multiple people familiar with the matter say that Glass: Enterprise Edition is only just now starting to see wider adoption…
As we’ve mentioned many times, Google Glass isn’t dead. Google’s front for representing the device in the consumer eye may be gone now, but in the background Glass lives on under the umbrella of Project Aura. The Aura team is working on a few different devices right now, one of which being a continuation of Glass referred to as “EE” or the “Enterprise Edition.” We told you about this across several exclusive reports last year, and Google finally let FCC images of the Enterprise Edition go public at the end of last month.
Here’s what Google Glass said on Google+:
Hi Explorers, we’ve had a blast hanging out with you on G+ throughout the Explorer Program. From now on, if you have any questions about your Glass, you can get in touch with us here: https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3079854
While this may mark the end of the “Google Glass” name (yep, it’s a sad day indeed), several people familiar with the situation have said that Google is now being much less stringent about keeping Glass: Enterprise Edition under wraps. While the device has been in the hands of the clients for several Glass for Work partner groups since early last year, clients who managed to get the EE device had to be careful not to let images and information get out to the public.
Since Google is reportedly loosening its grip a little, Glass for Work partner groups are now able to get the device into more hands and test the product more widely. It makes sense that Google would let go considering we’ve detailed almost everything there is to know about the new hardware (including its waterproof build, Intel Atom processor, new charging port, and more) and that pictures are now public.
So while Google Glass as a consumer product is pretty much confirmed dead at this point, Glass is still very much a thing. Project Aura is the project that aims to bring some kind of head-mounted audio product to the masses over the next couple of years, though, and if you think we’ll be following that project just as closely as we’ve been following Glass, you would assume correctly.
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