Google wants to try again the adventure of connected glasses

No one really expected them anymore. However, they are back. Seven years after the official end of the catastrophic adventure of its Google Glass, the American giant will try again. On the occasion of his traditional keynote for I/O developers, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, mentioned at the end of the presentation the intention of the group of set out again to attack this particular market.

In a video of just under two minutes, the company presented a new model, radically different from the first version. Google has obviously learned from its mistakes and adjusted. Your new glasses now have a classic glasses lookan essential element to earn a good place in the opinion of the general public.

Its functionalities have changed especially radically. No more controversial cameras. The giant prefers to play the public interest card this time with its star function of instant translation. The glasses are visibly capable of translating the words of the person in front of them in real time. They then show the real-time translation written on the glasses.

The new product also has the great advantage of addressing a real problem, something that the first version has always struggled to do. Since the technology has advanced significantly since 2012, the integration of additional features such as Google Maps also seems conceivable. For this initiative, however, the group is proceeding cautiously. For now, Google prefers not There is no release date or price yet.

If the group has been so cautious since its first failure, other companies are going there much more directly. Snap was one of the first to take up the torch. His ‘Spectacles’ glasses allow you to film, photograph and then export this content directly to a Snapshat account. If the first versions had problems convincing, the group persists and intends to navigate the VR phenomenon to position itself in the market. For its part, Meta launched its first glasses at the end of 2021 in collaboration with Ray Ban. They also allow you to photograph, film, but also listen to music and make calls. Available in Belgium since March, they are on sale at 329 euros.

However, the Chinese brand Oppo is the one whose glasses are closest to Google’s original offer. The group announced last February the launch of its Air Glass whose style is reminiscent of the first version of Google Glass. Specifically, they allow you to consult several of their applications (weather, calendar, messaging) and they also have a translation system and even a teleprompter. No release in Europe is currently planned.

Pending further investigation, Google has announced that it is targeting another market. The group will soon commercialize your first smart watch. Although it was already acting indirectly by offering technical solutions to third parties, Google still did not have its own model. Its Pixel Watch model will clearly position itself in the same market as the famous Apple Watch of the Apple brand. The bet is daring since the offers in the market are already numerous. Apple is now the leader with around 30% of the market. Samsung owns 10% of sales, with the rest highly fragmented. However, Google was able to rely on Fitbit’s knowledge. The brand was acquired in 2019 for more than two billion dollars.