Explorer Edition

Be sure to also read part 2: Don’t believe the unbelievers (Part 2); Google Glass has succeeded through Glass at Work

After seeing the countless doomsday articles over the last couple of weeks, I can’t help but wonder whether or not Google regrets the way they announced the retirement of the Glass Explorer Program and graduation of Glass out of Google[x]. The headline of the announcement, reading “We’re graduating from Google[x] labs” was nothing like the headlines of those that reported the news. Instead of reporting that the device was “graduating” out of Google’s experimental product lab and into its own division (under Tony Fadell’s leadership no less), headlines reported of Glass being a “failed innovation,” as being “killed off,” and blatantly called the project “dead”.

Google didn’t say any of these things. Sure, there is absolutely room to criticize various aspects of the Explorer Program, but Google is moving on from that. That’s what this announcement was about. Google has decided to put all of its resources and focus into the next generation of the Glass project, and meanwhile the world is claiming its demise before what’s next has even been seen. I understand that many objections against Glass are moreso objections against head-worn computing in general, but arguments claiming the overall death of the augmented reality experiment I believe are also premature. And not only is augmented and holographic head-worn computing not dead, but evidence points to it being on the brink of a very real evolution.

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When we heard reports late last month that Google might be planning to assemble its Google Glass headsets in the US, we also heard the company was preparing to make a ‘few thousand’ units of its Explorer Edition for contest winners and others receiving the opportunity to purchase the $1500 hardware. Today we get a bit of an update with Google confirming at its “Glass Collective” event that Glass will ship within the next month (via TechCrunch).

It’s not too surprising given Google I/O is set to take place next month starting May 15, but Google also announced today that it will be offering seed funding to developers within the Glass ecosystem through a new fund dubbed “Glass Collective”:

Here at Google Ventures, my partners and I thought the potential for Glass was significant enough to invite our friends at Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to join us in exploring this big opportunity. We’ve formed the Glass Collective, an investment syndicate between our three firms, to provide seed funding to entrepreneurs in the Glass ecosystem to help jumpstart their ideas.

Google will start its seed investments in the US and along with its Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and KPCB, will be reviewing applications for Glass ideas submitted to the various firms involved.