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Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

news.ycombinator.com

41–50 of 54 posts

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#41
post #21

It's not useful. It provides no advantages over my smartphone and tons of disadvantages. It takes away all forms of input other than voice and eye movement. It has a tiny display. And it looks so, so stupid when you're wearing one. It's one of the only things you can put on and even though you founded Google 90% of the people looking at you will wonder if you're an idiot.

> It's not useful. Have you ever tried one before making a judgement? I'm not saying I'll find it useful, just that for now it's too soon to tell. > It provides no advantages over my smartphone and tons of disadvantages. It provides a hand-free + display + sound experience you can't have with a cellphone (you can use a Bluetooth earplug but you still have to hold it to see the display). > And it looks so, so stupid w…

The hands free display is the only advantage and it's not worth it. If there were a market for hands free displays, there's nothing stopping us from having one for our smartphones just like Bluetooth earpieces.

The reality is that holding your smartphone in order to access the display is not a problem most of the time. In the cases where it is a problem (because your hands are otherwise occupied or you don't want to direct all of your attention to the display) you shouldn't be using a smartphone or smartphone-like device (i.e. Glass) anyway.

> The same thing was said with smartphones and laptops you know.

Yes, by a small fringe element of idiots.

The difference is those of us saying Glass makes you look stupid are not idiots and we're not a fringe. Pretty much any normal person you show a picture of Sergey wearing Glass will go "What is that on his face?" and not in a nice way.

EDIT:

One last thing.

Why do you think all of the Google hype videos for Glass show the same exact thing over and over again; somebody doing something exciting and videoing it with Glass? Because that's the ONLY use case for it. I would assert that it's a terrible use case too, but even if I don't argue that point, that single use case is not enough for Glass to see widespread adoption.

It's a stupid device and it's a waste of money, time and effort that should be spent on actually improving smartphones.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#42
$50

I can see Glass being interesting in some situations, but mostly I don't feel like it's a vital product for me. And I certainly don't feel the attraction in the way I did with a smartphone.

I would feel very differently if this were an implant and not something I wear. I do not want to have something on my face and the advantages I see from Glass don't outweigh that desire.

For example, I don't see the advantage in being able to photograph things from my head. Sure, you can imagine a situation where having a camera attached to your head is really useful and being able to take an instant photograph would be fantastic, but I'm not ready to pay the price of a thing on my face all the time for that benefit.

I can imagine having Glass as a display for a GPS as very helpful. I wouldn't mind driving with something like that especially if it could be part of sunglasses. There I am concentrating on a task which Glass will enhance. So, I view Glass as task-enhancing not life-enhancing. A lot of recent news has been of the gee-whiz it'll change your life variety which is off-putting. It's more likely to be incredibly useful in some situations.

Lastly, I do not trust Google and so the idea of a device that uploads stuff in any automatic fashion is not something I want. (It's not just Google, I don't trust Apple's iCloud etc.). I may be unusual in that. I would actually prefer that there be a 'home cloud server' which would be where my photos, emails etc. were stored and processed and that I had total control over.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#43
I think it looks incredibly bad right now.

I need to see it put through the wringer. Let people spend their hundreds on the (simplistic) hardware, write software for it, obsess over it. I'll buy it later after it has become socially accepted, slimmer, less of an eyesore, has a few killer features, and costs a lot less than $250.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#44
I bought the first Android phone as soon as it came out, because it solved real problems in my life, so I definitely can be an early adopter if the product is compelling. That said, technology is already intrusive in my life and I'm having to take very conscious, deliberate steps to disconnect. The idea of always having it in my field of vision, or of competing for someone else's attention, or of having them looking up information on me while they're staring at my face is frankly horrifying.

I can definitely see how it could be extremely useful for specialized applications like surgery or any other activity where you need both information and the use of both hands.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#46

I think $500 is a reasonable amount of pay, $250 means no profit on it for Google which sets an unrealistic boundary for other businesses.

I think the goal will be somewhere between $200 - $500. I don't actually think the hardware is really that expensive to manufacture, so I could see those numbers being hit pretty easily.

Once economies of scale on the display kick in, the hardware can be fundamentally made significantly cheaper than a smartphone, everything and slower (vastly less CPU and GPU requirements as the software exists today, compared to a modern smartphone, although that could change if they start doing augmented reality stuff), it has fewer radios, less patent and compliance tax, and similar size/thickness/density/complexity. I think a $100 cost price should be easily achievable once the volume gets up. (I design hardware professionally.)

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#47
post #15
post #5

I assume this is for the eventual productised version and not for the current public beta / "explorer" version. I'd need at least a solid 24 hours of battery life with typical use, and some degree of weather resistance before I'd buy.

The Explorer units are practically waterproof. Mine lasts most of the day.

It also needs a little LED next to the camera like on MacBooks etc so people you're talking to know if you're recording. A simple feature that would increase comfort amongst those around you.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#48

Both of your polls need a "it's far too soon to tell" option. None of us know how use of a Glass-like product will impact our behavior over the long term, so we've got no way of objectively evaluating its pros and cons. Buying and using Glass now is like taking an unregulated pill based solely on the claims of its manufacturer and a few enthusiastic users. You can see the good easily, the bad not as easily, and the u…

Agreed! It will take time (at least 2 years) to determine what it should do and the direction that it will head.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not useful. Have you ever tried one before making a judgement? I'm not saying I'll find it useful, just that for now it's too soon to tell. > It provides no advantages over my smartphone and tons of disadvantages. It provides a hand-free + display + sound experience you can't have with a cellphone (you can use a Bluetooth earplug but you still have to hold it to see the display). > And it looks so, so stupid w…

The hands free display is the only advantage and it's not worth it. If there were a market for hands free displays, there's nothing stopping us from having one for our smartphones just like Bluetooth earpieces. The reality is that holding your smartphone in order to access the display is not a problem most of the time. In the cases where it is a problem (because your hands are otherwise occupied or you don't want to…

> The hands free display is the only advantage and it's not worth it. If there were a market for hands free displays, there's nothing stopping us from having one for our smartphones just like Bluetooth earpieces.

Right, because the only reason things don't exist is because there's no market for it. Google spent several years iterating and trying to get the Glass into a workable size (it was originally basically a smartphone strapped to a pair of glasses), and there was no way it could be in a small enough package until very recently.

> Yes, by a small fringe element of idiots.

Most people seem to either want one, or are relatively apathetic, so either most people don't think it looks stupid or they think the penalty of looking stupid is worth it for the benefits.

> Why do you think all of the Google hype videos for Glass show the same exact thing over and over again; somebody doing something exciting and videoing it with Glass? Because that's the ONLY use case for it. I would assert that it's a terrible use case too, but even if I don't argue that point, that single use case is not enough for Glass to see widespread adoption.

Except for the videos with people doing mundane things like biking, playing in the park, or trying to catch a train? If you ignore 1 or 2 sky diving videos, almost all of the videos with Glass I've seen were situations I'm in daily or frequently enough that they aren't exceptional situations.

Re: Poll: At what price would you buy Google Glass?

#50

The world is heading towards wearable computing, and honestly, Google has done a fantastic job hyping up Glass. When I first heard about Glass a while back, I told all my friends, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. The majority of the girls (and about half the boys) who saw the concept told me something along the lines of, "Ewww, why would anyone wear that?" Now here, at the college level, a good majorit…

I bought my first iPhone in 2008 primarily because it gave me access to live bus arrival times and an interactive map. Other reasons that were far less important were the ability to look up random stuff on the internet, the fact that I hated the UI on my dumb phone, and the fact that I was carrying an iPod anyway so one device was more convenient than two. The main drivers addressed a real problem -- finding my way around when I don't have a computer nearby.

I have a feeling you may be right in the long term that Glass may prove successful, but I just don't see anything like the same benefits. My smart phone gave me fundamentally new capabilities. Glass seems to just make them more convenient.

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