Where are they now - Google Glass

It's been nearly half a decade since the Big G's foray into the consumer electronics market. Despite some clumsy attempts to make Glass fashionable, complete with a reality TV worthy scandal between a then-married Brin and a Google "cheerleader, there was a shortfall in terms of public interest and appeal. My last post on Viral Mojo (way back in 2013, time flies!) highlighted the potential, or lack of it, for Glass to go mainstream and create a new category of wearables. In the final analysis Glass failed at capturing the public imagination or turn Google into a viable competitor to Apple as a category definer.

Even with its past experience with the Chromebook it's easy to say Google was stepping away from its core competency as a software vendor and lacked the organisational DNA necessary to execute truly category-defining wins. From a purely business perspective this would be true and could be perceived as a case of operational expertise, along with hype, failing to live up to the promise of the concept.

But hindsight is 20-20, particularly in the Tech and IoT sectors. It must be remembered that despite the huge amount of hype behind the Glass initiative it was only ever a prototype and not a full-blown production run. Google stayed true to its heritage of test-learn-retest engineering coupled with willingness to bet on new ideas. An approach that most, if not all, big IT companies baulk. It is this heritage that has lead Google to becoming a dominant player in the internet space and Alphabet to fast become a driver for bleeding edge innovation.

So what now for Glass? Whilst the product never set the consumer markets alight it's found increasingly strong traction at the enterprise level with Google releasing the first enterprise edition last year. Compelling manufacturing, healthcare and logistics use cases are already established, no doubt with more in the pipeline. In some ways Google has achieved what it set out to do - create a stable, scalable foundation for a hardware platform in the wearable segment.

Which doesn't mean that concept-wise Google was far off. Wearable eye-wear as the next step in the personal device assistant evolution was always on the cards and will most likely pre-stage the idea of implantable smart technology beyond pacemakers and bio-feedback devices. Interestingly, several leading electronics companies, including Google, have patented applications for smart contact lenses. Less obtrusive, less clumsy and potentially a driver for adoption of the IoT smart device eco-system smart contact lenses potentially pick up where Glass left off. Again, this depends hugely on the ability of companies like Google, Sony and Samsung being able to successfully marry concept to execution.

So whilst we aren't quite into Ethan Hunt-style Mission Impossible smart gadgets territory yet, we're not far off.