Google closed its Google Glass Explorer program back in January and transferred control of the project to Tony Fadell, former iPod guru and CEO of Nest Labs. This move led to a great deal of speculation about the future of the project. It seems, however, that rumors of Glass' death are greatly exaggerated. In a statement made to the Wall Street Journal today, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt made it clear that the company is still committed to Glass:
“It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google,” Schmidt said. “We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true. Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it.”
He said Glass, like Google’s self-driving car, is a long-term project. “That’s like saying the self-driving car is a disappointment because it’s not driving me around now,” he said. “These things take time.”
Before the Google Glass Explorer program shut down, we got hints that the next Glass would be powered by Intel silicon, and we even got a glimpse of what the next generation of Glass might look like via patent drawings, so proclaiming Glass dead never really seemed justified. Let's just hope Google can find an adjustment that solves the Glasshole problem.