Google must really want Robert Scoble to stop talking about or doing anything with Google Glass. Scoble, who last year annoyed Google CEO Larry Page with his infamous Glass-enhanced shower selfie, has taken to Google+ to write that Glass is essentially a “doomed” product in 2014. Scoble’s reason for Glass’s impending commercial failure this year is pretty simple: It’s mostly about the pricing.
“Price is gonna matter a LOT,” he writes. “But I’m hearing they won’t be able to get under $500 in 2014, so that means it’s doomed. In 2014. When they get under $300 and have another revision or two? That’s when the market really will show up. 2016, I say.”
Scoble goes on to list some other potential barriers to mass adoption of Glass. Among the most prominent, he says, is the headset’s eye sensor that he thinks really does have the potential to be invasive.
“That thing can probably tell whether you are drunk or sober (think about THAT tonight),” he explains. “It also can probably tell you when you are checking out someone you shouldn’t be (wait until the wife gets an alert about THAT). Of course Google will use it to tell what brands you are checking out at the grocery store (coupon alert) or when you are shopping in a shopping mall.”
Other barriers to mass adoption, Scoble says, are lack of apps, poor battery life and a UI that needs significant refinement. In other words, it sounds like Google has a lot of work to do if it ever wants Glass to be a commercial hit.
