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Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

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61–70 of 259 posts

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#61
post #30

Innovators dilemma. You were early to market, you did all the work, and no one wanted the product. What do you do? Keep going? Or give up from exhaustion? This is the unfortunate situation with many who tackle new spaces like Mobile, VR and AR. Google will no doubt re-enter the space, but only after it's been validated. And that's totally fine. Expect Google to produce quality hardware and software at a time when the…

>Things like Starline are where Google will shine for now.

I had to Google-fu because I never heard of this before.

Turns out it's buried beneath at least five other companies/brands named Starline, and the thing I did eventually find was a single non-descript Google blog post from 2021.

Suffice it to say I expect whatever the hell Starline is to be another of many on the Killed By Google(tm) pile.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#62

At this point, I think issue is not about products Google build, it is about how Google put their incentives in place. - Build new shiny thing -> promoted - Support shiny thing -> it's not difficult, everyone can do it This type of culture is influencing future direction of Google products, they put together awesome team, solve problem and get from 0 to 1, then team moves on, others don't have incentive to make 1 to…

> - Support shiny thing -> it's not difficult, everyone can do it This is not a truism, even though many managers see it like that. Dealing with someone else's mess is way harder than to deal with your own.

> This is not a truism, even though many managers see it like that.

Which is, I think, exactly the point that OP is trying to make. Incentives are defined by managers, after all.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#63

At this point, I think issue is not about products Google build, it is about how Google put their incentives in place. - Build new shiny thing -> promoted - Support shiny thing -> it's not difficult, everyone can do it This type of culture is influencing future direction of Google products, they put together awesome team, solve problem and get from 0 to 1, then team moves on, others don't have incentive to make 1 to…

This is a meme that people love and there's some truth to it, but also a number of ways in which it's inaccurate.

Sure you can get promoted for launching a new thing, but you can also get promoted for fixing a first pass implementation, for scaling something from a small user base to a large user base, and so on, as long as you can show the "impact" of the change – whether that's revenue, savings, productivity, improved UX, etc.

It's possible that up at the top there's more of a focus on shipping new things, but I don't think that's something that 99% of Googlers need to obsess over, and it doesn't reflect the bulk of the work actually being done.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#65

More than 10 years later, it's still not good enough for business adoption? Wow. When it was first released, it was really neat. I'd imagine that we'd all be wearing AR glasses by now.

There were some decent use cases I've heard off; supplier compliance got quite big during Covid and AFAIK stayed big. Instead of flying out a team to inspect a factory, just ask someone to walk around the factory wearing Glass. Zero notice, much less chance to cheat, waaaay cheaper. That and documentation lookup should have made for decent enterprise sales. Probably not big enough to satisfy the big G.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get "headsets" that your phone slots into for less than $50. Pair it with some decent headphones.

This is essentially what I'm looking for, but I'm struggling to find a specific product to buy. It seems all of my searches turn up results where I need some dorky hand-held controllers, or I need to be connected to a big gaming PC, or that it's a simple headset but the iPhone doesn't actually fit in it. Do you know any that will fit an iPhone 13? I have some decent noise-cancelling headphones already.

Sorry, I'm on Android and haven't used such a headset in a few years.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#67
post #34

Somewhat related, a question for HN people: Is there a product — perhaps some kind of goggles — that I can wear on my face which will simulate the experience of watching a big television? I don't want virtual reality or augmented reality or anything like that. I just want to be able to sit on a long-haul flight and isolate my eyes and ears in such a way that it feels like I'm sitting alone in a dark room watching a m…

Nreal Air is one. Others are launching too. Without the AR parts it is lighter. Works well as plain monitor without any support software. Only slight problem I have with this is it heats up a bit.

Forgot to mention it needs a couple of adapters to connect it to iPhone.

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#69

At this point, I think issue is not about products Google build, it is about how Google put their incentives in place. - Build new shiny thing -> promoted - Support shiny thing -> it's not difficult, everyone can do it This type of culture is influencing future direction of Google products, they put together awesome team, solve problem and get from 0 to 1, then team moves on, others don't have incentive to make 1 to…

The same mindset can be seen everywhere, even in opensource:

-Build shiny new replacement -> HN front page, exposure, kudos -Fix bugs in existing thing -> No recognition

Rewriting is so much more fun than hunting after obscure issues

Re: Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise

#70
I did some work on a project using these last year.

My findings were:

- couldn't get them onboarded into intune/active directory

- camera wasn't good for task past 1.5m or so

- screen was too low res for required use (see features on a chart)

They were cheaper than the latest iPhone... I think this is the error that they made - if they had gone for a top of the line device then they would have been closer to the expectations that our customers had.

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