rewrite this title Can Google’s Impressive New Glasses Escape the Curse of AR?

Back in 2014, a buddy who was working for Google invited me on a tour of the company’s headquarters.

One of the highlights for me was our trip to the top floor of the building. He took me to a private office area where I was able to experience some of the company’s cutting-edge projects.

Here’s a picture of me wearing one of them, right around the time the tech was being introduced to the public

In case you can’t tell from the picture, those are Google Glass, Google’s first stab at augmented reality (AR) wearables.

They were not a success. The company pulled Google Glass from the market in 2015, just one year later.

And you can tell one of the big problems this technology had working against it just by looking at that picture…

It made you look ridiculous.

Of course, I also looked ridiculous with that bushy beard… but I had just come back from a six month hiatus in Nicaragua, so please cut me some slack.

Anyway, the reason I’m sharing this picture with you today is because Google is at it again.

A few weeks ago at a TED event, Google’s head of augmented and extended reality, Shahram Izadi, surprised the audience by pulling a sleek pair of Android XR glasses out of his pocket.

These glasses are being developed with Samsung, and right off the bat they look a lot better than Google Glass.

They’re lightweight. Slim. They appear to be genuinely wearable, not the bulky prototypes we’ve seen with similar AR products.

That’s because these glasses aren’t trying to cram a supercomputer onto your face.

Instead, they’re designed to stream data back and forth from an Android phone. This lets the phone do the heavy lifting while keeping the glasses light and comfortable.

Yet they also appear to be chock-full of features.

Google demoed real-time language translation, document scanning and even a “memory” function to help find misplaced items.

It’s one of the cleanest visions of augmented reality I’ve seen yet.

The only catch…

That they’re not expected to launch until 2026.

So what are the chances that these Android XR glasses succeed where Google Glass and so many other products like it have failed?

I have some thoughts…

The Wearable AR Curse

Bringing AR glasses into the mainstream has been a lot harder than tech companies expected.

Just look at Apple. The company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has been all-in on augmented reality for years, saying he is “incredibly excited by AR” because he can “see uses for it everywhere.”

Under his guidance, Apple has spent the past two years working on its second attempt at creating lightweight AR glasses. The first attempt never went anywhere.

Known internally as “N107,” this recent project was supposed to bring augmented reality into the everyday world with something stylish enough to wear around town.

But now it’s not happening.

According to Bloomberg, Apple officially canceled its AR glasses project earlier this year, citing what were ultimately insurmountable technical challenges.

Apparently, a major problem was that the glasses drained too much battery when tethered to an iPhone. Apple then tried to shift the workload to a Mac, but that made the design too bulky.

Meanwhile, attempts to miniaturize the display hardware ran into serious problems with screen quality, motion blur and color fidelity.

Even for a company like Apple — known for patient engineering and perfecting technologies others have rushed to market — functional and practical AR glasses turned out to be too difficult to produce.

Instead, Apple pivoted back to investing in MicroLED display technology, which could eventually enable more practical wearables down the road.

For now, though, they’re placing their bets on the Vision Pro headset, which suffers from a similar Google Glass-like goofiness and is priced out of reach for most consumers.

Of course, every company has to deal with the obvious hardware problems like battery life, processing power and display quality.

And these issues are even tougher to solve when you’re trying to shrink a high-performance computer down into something that looks and feels like regular glasses.

But the challenge with AR wearables isn’t just about technical problems…

It’s also about human problems.

Most people just don’t seem ready to strap technology to their faces in public. At least not yet.

There’s still a stigma around looking strange or disconnected while wearing bulky, high-tech gear. You can design the best functioning AR glasses in the world, but if the average person feels awkward wearing them in a coffee shop, they’re not going to catch on.

Then there’s the issue of use cases.

Even the most advanced AR glasses can’t succeed if the software ecosystem is clunky, limited or awkward to use.

Integration across apps, devices and real-world environments remains a major barrier to adoption.

And beyond entertainment or novelty, AR hasn’t yet delivered a “killer app” that makes wearing these devices feel essential.

It’s true that AR glasses are proving their worth In enterprise settings like warehouses and surgeries. Even the much-maligned Google Glass has quietly had a second life in these environments.

But for everyday use?

Most consumers just don’t see the value. Especially with such high price points.

On one hand, you have Meta’s fashionable AI-assisted Ray-Bans that start at $299.

Source: Meta

Even if you never use the limited technology embedded in its frames, at least you’re getting a stylish pair of glasses.

But when fully AR glasses cost $1,000 or more and their value feels unproven…

It’s no wonder this tech hasn’t taken off yet.

And that’s not even addressing the privacy issue.

AR glasses involve cameras and sensors that constantly scan the environment. This opens up a whole host of data security and surveillance concerns.

So what does this mean for Google’s new Android XR glasses?

Here’s My Take

Frankly, I believe Google’s new glasses could be a hit.

That is, if Meta doesn’t beat them to it. After all, Meta’s Ray-Bans are already quietly going mainstream.

EssilorLuxottica, the company that partners with Meta to produce these smart glasses, announced in February that over 2 million units have been sold since the product’s September 2023 launch.

I own two pairs, and I love them. Their first-person view really has me hooked.

I can imagine a future where I’m able to relive picking up my kids when they were little because I captured a video of that moment through my glasses.

I should note that the newer version is way better than the first one. It’s much more responsive.

But it’s not AR.

However, the company is working hard to become a leader in AR wearables. Last September Meta unveiled proprietary AR glasses that are still being tested internally.

The company is reportedly set to spend over $100 billion on virtual and augmented reality projects this year.

And it’s rumored Meta’s first “real” AR glasses, codenamed “Artemis”, will be released in 2027.

This will put them in stiff competition against Google’s Android XR glasses.

Speaking of which, Google looks like it is headed in the right direction by not trying to jam every chip and sensor into the glasses themselves.

But if Apple wasn’t able to successfully offload processing onto the iPhone, I wonder how Google can solve similar problems around battery life.

And the company still needs to get past the main issues with AR wearables.

Even the best-designed glasses can’t change the fact that many consumers are hesitant to adopt head-worn tech, especially if it still feels a little awkward or gimmicky.

Until the right mix of comfort, utility and cultural acceptance comes together, AR glasses — even very good ones — will stay stuck on the sidelines.

But if Google can finally deliver on its promise, 2026 might just be the year AR glasses start becoming a part of everyday life.

Regards,

Ian KingChief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing

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