Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced Wednesday that its Glass project had shifted out from its Google X research arm and into a standalone project. As a result the Explorer project will end on Monday and sales to the public will hault.
While Google will stop selling Glass to the public as part of the change, sales to businesses and educational institutions will continue as Google seeks to push its Glass at Work program. For users that have Glass headset, the devices will continue to work as normal but there will no longer be any updates for the device.
The Explorer program was never meant to be permanent. Google only intended it to be a temporary endeavour to see how people would use Glass in their personal lives and in the workplace. While Glass received a fair amount of criticism for the privacy implications of its front facing camera, later on in the Glass program it did find a following amongst some as a productivity enhancing device in the workplace.
Going forward, the Glass project will be run by Ivy Ross who will report to Nest’s Tony Fadell. However Google has confirmed that Glass will not be integrated into the Nest project.
An updated version of Glass is expected later this year.
