The Failure of Google Glass

Glasses where I can stream the internet, check text messages and take photos and record videos? Count me in! Is Google Glass the newest innovative, wearable technology the people have seen? In short, no; no it is not. Although the idea of Google Glass was a hit, the failure of the designers ability to validate and assess the assumptions behind this product was the result of Google Glass not being able to stay in the market for over two years.

Google Glass by Google

What is Google Glass and where did it come from? Why haven’t I seen it being advertised? There is a lot of things that could be said about this invention, but great is not one of them. Although the designs theory was very innovated for the time it debuted by Google in 2013, it fell short in the expectations of interested customers and later disbanded the production in 2015.

Google Glass was supposed to be ‘smart’ glasses that acted as a touch-less smartphone on your face. It not only fell short to peoples expectations but also brought up concerns of privacy such as people being filmed without them knowing as well as having their personal information saved into Google servers unknowingly. Another big let down was the design of the product. The look of Google Glass was also supposed to have a very modern and chic design but most users believed this to be very unflattering. The failure of Google Glass is largely due to the assumptions Google’s team made when making this product.

Google Glass by Google

Some of these assumptions include:

1. People are be willing to pay $1300 for this product. Yes, you read that right. Google marked this new product with a steep price of $1300. Although this new technology was innovative in a sense, it was not a price many people thought was justifiable.
2. Google Glass is something that everyone would want. As you can guess, it wasn’t. This product was more of an accessory to people who had glasses more than an invention on its own. And with that hefty price tag, it seemed somewhat unnecessary. In fact, there was no clear function of this device when it first was marketed causing users to not have interest or need in this product.
3. It is a trendy, futuristic looking device. Google Glass let down many users with the look of the device. Some users saying it looked like it was still in its prototype phase, this wasn’t the most sleek looking thing you could wear, especially on your face. It looked very unnatural to the eye, causing people to look at it even more which could also catch the eye of robbers and again, with that price point, isn’t worth risking.

These are a few assumptions Google has made and overlooked in the process of making and marketing this product. Their lack of recognition to these assumptions led to the downfall and extinction of this product. Studying and looking over the marketing antics as well as user research could have helped Google build this product incrementally but since they did not take these assumptions into consideration when making Google Glass, it failed miserably.