The long-awaited public launch of the Google Glass wearable computing tech may not happen until a year from now, according to the company’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World At One, the former long-time CEO said despite the specs already gracing the bonces of developers and #IfIHadGlass competition winners, a full commercial launch is still “a year-ish away.”
He said: “The developers are getting them now. It’s fair to say there’ll be thousands of these in use by developers in the next months.
“Based on their feedback we’ll make product changes and it [the full launch] is probably a year-ish away.”
Schmidt’s assessment is a departure from what we’ve been hearing out of Google in recent months, with the company seemingly aiming for a pre-Christmas commercial launch of the controversial headset.
As The Verge points out, Google may still be on track for this launch period with the expected price tag of around $1,5000 (£981) with Mr. Schmidt simply off-base or out of the loop with the most recent developers.
Beyond the release date talk, Schmidt also explained that the world will have to learn a new form of digital etiquette following the launch of Glass and other such devices.
He added: “It’s obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct. Companies like Google have a very important responsibility to keep your information safe but you have a responsibility as well which is to understand what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and behave appropriately and also keep everything up to date.”
The Google Glass revelation had been overshadowed by Schmidt’s defence of Google’s tax policy in the United Kingdom during the same interview on Monday.
Going off his logic, the paltry £6m in corporation tax the company hands over to HMRC every year is enough because Google is such a vital tool for the nation’s business.
He said: “We empower literally billions of pounds of start-ups through our advertising network and so forth. And we’re a key part of the electronic commerce expansion of Britain, which is driving a lot of economic growth for the country.”
“I think the most important thing to say about our taxes is that we fully comply with the law and we’ll obviously, should the law change, we’ll comply with that as well.”
Via The Verge
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
