Google, as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, released some preliminary advertising on the concept for their new eye-wear technology named Project Glass and if you haven’t heard by now then you can check out the augmented reality specs here:
https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts (includes photos and video).
As with anything unleashed on the internet there are people with varying reactions and ideas on all possible sides asking and answering all sorts of questions: Would they buy it? Would anybody use it? Can it work? Will it be socially accepted? Who cares? Why don’t I have these already? Do I have to use Google+? And so on. I personally can see great advantages and uses for this product, particularly if paired with a smart phone, and whether or not Google is too early to the market this type of product will eventually catch on and become more popular, especially when they can at some point get this same tech into contacts!
What’s definitely great about Google’s approach is that they’ve used the well accepted power of social media to run a relatively inexpensive and yet widely reaching market survey. Instead of getting a few dozen people in a few select cities to sit down and provide feedback and ideas on their new product concept they simply put it out to the whole world and asked people directly, “What do you think?” While at the same time creating a lot of buzz and free advertising.
You can have the coolest idea or concept in the world and create a seemingly fool proof plan for deployment and advertising, but if you don’t read the market right then you’re dead before you ever lived. Google made a beeline to their market to get them involved early and often and that was a smart choice and for this reason I do think Project Glass will pass if Google continues to engage and listen to their market.