What happened to Google Glass?

Chris Smith put this question to Angel investor Peter Cowley...

Peter - Google Glass was introduced in 2013 and sort of disappeared a couple of years later. It was a set of glasses that had a built-in android computer, a camera, and ear piece, and a microphone. The idea behind it was that you could effectively use it as – and it had a projection as well onto the glass so you could actually see a screen. So yeah, it was effectively a wearable computer. But there were a number of things wrong with it. The most important thing of all was the privacy issue and I remember being at a pitch event once when somebody was pitching to me. And this guy said, “Do you mind if we record the pitch?” There was about six of us in the room including somebody from Imperial College and we looked at each other and thought, “Ohh!” We can’t really say no because we’re technology investors, but we don’t really feel very good about it. And that I think was part of the problem that pushed back on it.

But Google have reintroduced it actually, only just recently in the last couple of months in an enterprise edition. So, what they’ve done is upgraded it. They’ve made it obviously better, technology moves on. They’ve also made it as a module which will fit onto safety glasses. It will fit onto spectacles, prescription spectacles, etc. And it’s been used in the industry for quite a long time in the last couple of years. It’s being used for picking. So you're picking stuff off shelves for instance. Being used for in training. There's a whole stack of applications for it which is very limited. So they’ve decided the general public don’t necessarily – aren’t ready for it which is probably true, which also got a red light that says it’s recording as well but that’s very minor! So effectively as a business tool, it’s out there still and that will grow, and there's no doubt. Whether it goes back or when it goes back into the public domain, I'm not sure.