Google Discontinues Glass Enterprise Edition – Final Goodbye for Smart Glasses
Google has discontinued the Glass Enterprise Edition, its augmented reality glasses designed for businesses. The company updated its webpages to say that Glass Enterprise Edition will be discontinued as of 15 March 2023, with support ending on 15 September 2023.[0] No new software updates are expected.[1]
This marks the second time that Google has discontinued the head-mounted optical display.[2] The Glass Enterprise Edition was designed to be more comfortable to wear and more suitable for industrial use, featuring a bigger display, a foldable design and a speedier processor. Google then released the Glass Enterprise Edition 2 eyewear, with more powerful hardware and software, in 2019.[3]
However, despite the upgrades the product was struggling to attract enough interest from enterprise customers.[0] Google's parent Alphabet decided to cut 12,000 jobs in January, and this product appears to be caught in the crossfire.[0]
Google has now halted sales of its business-grade augmented reality specs, and will eventually halt customer support and software updates for the smart glasses later on 15 September 2023.[0] The company has said that existing units will continue working after this date, but won't roll out any software updates after that, and the pre-installed Meet on Glass app may stop working anytime after 15 September.[3]
Though Google has stopped producing the Glass Enterprise Edition, it's possible the company could revive the glasses line in the future. Last year, the company showed off a pair of smart glasses that can translate foreign languages in real-time by displaying the corresponding text over the lenses and has since been testing the product in public.[4]
Ultimately, it appears that Google has finally pulled the plug on its last iteration of Google Glass.[5] While the original product never really caught on, the Glass Enterprise Edition had potential.[6] But, it appears that this product has met its end, with Google taking the Glass Enterprise Edition off the market.
0. “RIP Google Glass Enterprise As Sales for Smart Glasses End” PCMag Middle East, 15 Mar. 2023, https://me.pcmag.com/en/news/15522/rip-google-glass-enterprise-as-sales-for-smart-glasses-end
1. “Google has killed off its Glass AR glasses all over again” Pocket-lint, 15 Mar. 2023, https://www.pocket-lint.com/google-has-killed-off-its-glass-ar-glasses-all-over-again/
2. “Google Discontinues Google Glass AR Headset Again” CNET, 15 Mar. 2023, https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/google-discontinues-google-glass-ar-headset-again/
3. “Google Glass is set to disappear (again)” Yahoo Entertainment, 16 Mar. 2023, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/google-retires-glass-ar-eyewear-082512062.html
4. “Google ends enterprise sales of Google Glass, its augmented reality smartglasses” CNBC, 15 Mar. 2023, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/google-discontinues-google-glass-enterprise-end-to-early-ar-project.html
5. “End of an era: Google kills its last Google Glass product” MIXED Reality News, 16 Mar. 2023, https://mixed-news.com/en/google-glass-enterprise-edition-2-discontinued
6. “Google stops selling its biz-grade augmented reality specs” The Register, 16 Mar. 2023, https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/16/google_enterprise_glass_discontinued
