Presently, Google Glass is still in the development stage with a couple thousand people “beta testing” the device and developers working on applications for the highly-anticipated wearable technology. While Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has given no time frame for its release, its been widely reported that it will be sometime next year. Of course, Google would have loved to have made it available before the holidays, but it seems that they’ve made the decision to get it right rather than getting it done quickly.
Google Glass to work with prescription lenses
Now, with all that said, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in early talks with optometrists and lens makers to ultimately take the technology to the tens upon tens of millions of Americans who wear corrective lenses.
Well, they are talking to at least one company, VSP Global. VSP is a nationwide vision benefits provider that also covers Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) employees. In addition to offering vision benefits, VSP Global also makes frames and lenses. Fashionable frames and modeling the device to work in conjunction with prescription glasses is one of the biggest keys for Google to make Glass popular to the masses.
“Down the road I think this technology is going to blow up,” Matt Alpert, an optometrist in Woodland Hills, Ca., who is on the board of VSP Global and is an early tester of Google Glass told the WSJ. “As soon as apps are developed that are relevant for your world, it will start to take off.”
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has already publicly stated that it intends to sell the device to work with prescription glasses not just in the lensless form it presently takes.
Google looking at mass distribution channels
According to the WSJ’s sources familiar with the talks, it’s believed that Google is also talking to VSP about distribution channels that could really move its product to Main Street.
Wearable tech will be a large part of the future and hardly a day goes by where I don’t read about another possible application for the device. The Glass has already been used to “live stream” open heart surgery to a number of medical students among other innovative uses.
Whatever your personal feelings about Glass might be, it’s on its way and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) isn’t just looking at “techies” to justify the program.
