Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?
To fork off of:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5644621
The buy decision is influenced by the price. So it begs the question: At what price does Google Glass need to hit for you to buy?
The buy decision is influenced by the price. So it begs the question: At what price does Google Glass need to hit for you to buy?
Think about initial smartphone adoption. You could've argued that they provided little benefit over a laptop for many features. The displays were small with low resolution, web connectivity was slow, websites weren't optimized for mobile, and the cameras were pieces of rubber duckies. But they were cool, and people found a use for them as technology improved. As techies, we should absolutely not be dismissing first-generation tech.
Yes, voice control is freaking awkward, but there are solutions to that. Thalmic Labs, for example, is coming out with the MYO (go watch the video) which would be perfect for interacting with Google Glass. Make a hand gesture to take a picture, instead of taking out your phone and positioning it? Seems like a natural fit to me.
I'm guessing Google Glass will converge around the $400-$700 price range, possibly with more than one model. Youth adoption will probably drive overall consumer adoption. As with a lot of new stuff like this, it's easy to say you don't need it. It's harder to say you don't want it after you have it.
I have a feeling you may be right in the long term that Glass may prove successful, but I just don't see anything like the same benefits. My smart phone gave me fundamentally new capabilities. Glass seems to just make them more convenient.
If I can buy one and hook it up with a backend server that I own and control I would buy for $500 (the price of a good smartphne).
I know it's still early, but it's hard to imagine Glass being more significant to me than my first smart phone, which gave me an incredible amount of information in very convenient form. So it's hard for me to imagine paying even near the same price for it.
None of us know how use of a Glass-like product will impact our behavior over the long term, so we've got no way of objectively evaluating its pros and cons.
Buying and using Glass now is like taking an unregulated pill based solely on the claims of its manufacturer and a few enthusiastic users. You can see the good easily, the bad not as easily, and the unintended consequences that take time to emerge not at all.
When more information is available about the true pros and cons of Glass, then I'll be able to answer your poll. It could be a steal at almost any price, or it could be the sort of thing I'd never want anything to do with. At this point, who knows?
I keep thinking of how my smartphone unexpectedly weakened my ability to simply observe and be in my surroundings, and how, because I was an enthusiastic early adopter, I only found out about this after my behavior had already changed, when it was harder to fix. If I had been a bit more patient, I could've seen these effects in others and made a more informed decision. I won't make this mistake again.
I can see Glass being interesting in some situations, but mostly I don't feel like it's a vital product for me. And I certainly don't feel the attraction in the way I did with a smartphone.
I would feel very differently if this were an implant and not something I wear. I do not want to have something on my face and the advantages I see from Glass don't outweigh that desire.
For example, I don't see the advantage in being able to photograph things from my head. Sure, you can imagine a situation where having a camera attached to your head is really useful and being able to take an instant photograph would be fantastic, but I'm not ready to pay the price of a thing on my face all the time for that benefit.
I can imagine having Glass as a display for a GPS as very helpful. I wouldn't mind driving with something like that especially if it could be part of sunglasses. There I am concentrating on a task which Glass will enhance. So, I view Glass as task-enhancing not life-enhancing. A lot of recent news has been of the gee-whiz it'll change your life variety which is off-putting. It's more likely to be incredibly useful in some situations.
Lastly, I do not trust Google and so the idea of a device that uploads stuff in any automatic fashion is not something I want. (It's not just Google, I don't trust Apple's iCloud etc.). I may be unusual in that. I would actually prefer that there be a 'home cloud server' which would be where my photos, emails etc. were stored and processed and that I had total control over.
No thanks.
My impression is that, while Glass has the capability to record video, it is not like a GoPro cam that is always on.
The social issue is definitely an interesting one, though. I have a cell phone that can record anything anyone says around me without their knowledge. Though, no one really cares about that. Could the sensitivity of potentially being video recorded go the same way as audio?
People interested in Google Glass might want to look at this video-preview posted by the Dutch website Tweakers.net (first 4 mins is an English spoken interview with Robert Scoble who talks about his Google Glass device): http://tweakers.net/video/7621/google-glass.html
The main system on the chest will track my motions and blast out sound effects, let me play air guitar or bang a bunch of imaginary drums.
That's my idea of wearable computing
My comment was a play on Rob Malda's iconic criticism about the iPod in 2001: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ip...
Sorry if I come off like a Luddite. Make it a watch.
Places I'll use my Google Glass: Sport bike, skydiving, hiking, sailing.
$1500? I'd pay $2K.
I can definitely see how it could be extremely useful for specialized applications like surgery or any other activity where you need both information and the use of both hands.
And i have to consider, do I prioritize buying a tablet (or camera/netbook) first? A tablet may or may not be more functional... These are pretty sci-fi/magic though...
I need to see it put through the wringer. Let people spend their hundreds on the (simplistic) hardware, write software for it, obsess over it. I'll buy it later after it has become socially accepted, slimmer, less of an eyesore, has a few killer features, and costs a lot less than $250.
- No ads, from anyone, ever.
- Any data, including video and location information, is under my control, and there is an easy way to review/edit/delete it.
It's just a matter of time before CA declares them illegal to drive with which will diminish their value further.
And it looks so, so stupid when you're wearing one. It's one of the only things you can put on and even though you founded Google 90% of the people looking at you will wonder if you're an idiot.
Have you ever tried one before making a judgement? I'm not saying I'll find it useful, just that for now it's too soon to tell.
> It provides no advantages over my smartphone and tons of disadvantages.
It provides a hand-free + display + sound experience you can't have with a cellphone (you can use a Bluetooth earplug but you still have to hold it to see the display).
> And it looks so, so stupid when you're wearing one. It's one of the only things you can put on and even though you founded Google 90% of the people looking at you will wonder if you're an idiot.
The same thing was said with smartphones and laptops you know.
See this quora post on how it could be useful: http://www.quora.com/Google-Glass-4/What-have-been-the-best-...
And it's still true...
The reality is that holding your smartphone in order to access the display is not a problem most of the time. In the cases where it is a problem (because your hands are otherwise occupied or you don't want to direct all of your attention to the display) you shouldn't be using a smartphone or smartphone-like device (i.e. Glass) anyway.
> The same thing was said with smartphones and laptops you know.
Yes, by a small fringe element of idiots.
The difference is those of us saying Glass makes you look stupid are not idiots and we're not a fringe. Pretty much any normal person you show a picture of Sergey wearing Glass will go "What is that on his face?" and not in a nice way.
EDIT:
One last thing.
Why do you think all of the Google hype videos for Glass show the same exact thing over and over again; somebody doing something exciting and videoing it with Glass? Because that's the ONLY use case for it. I would assert that it's a terrible use case too, but even if I don't argue that point, that single use case is not enough for Glass to see widespread adoption.
It's a stupid device and it's a waste of money, time and effort that should be spent on actually improving smartphones.
Right, because the only reason things don't exist is because there's no market for it. Google spent several years iterating and trying to get the Glass into a workable size (it was originally basically a smartphone strapped to a pair of glasses), and there was no way it could be in a small enough package until very recently.
> Yes, by a small fringe element of idiots.
Most people seem to either want one, or are relatively apathetic, so either most people don't think it looks stupid or they think the penalty of looking stupid is worth it for the benefits.
> Why do you think all of the Google hype videos for Glass show the same exact thing over and over again; somebody doing something exciting and videoing it with Glass? Because that's the ONLY use case for it. I would assert that it's a terrible use case too, but even if I don't argue that point, that single use case is not enough for Glass to see widespread adoption.
Except for the videos with people doing mundane things like biking, playing in the park, or trying to catch a train? If you ignore 1 or 2 sky diving videos, almost all of the videos with Glass I've seen were situations I'm in daily or frequently enough that they aren't exceptional situations.
I mean, I really need to know what exactly I see with Google glass, the features it provides, maybe what its like using one since I have to wear it, etc. I would not feel comfortable purchasing one on the information I have now.