Google X's wearable technology isn't an iPod Nano, but rather a heads up display (glasses)
Google Goggles gets a new meaning — The New York Times today relayed an open secret among some in the Google community: the company is working on wearable technology in its secret off-campus Google X lair.
Context & Ripple Effects
The New York Times has put a name and a shape to what it calls an open secret inside Google: the company's off-campus Google X lab is reportedly building wearable technology, and the form factor is glasses with a heads-up display rather than the iPod Nano-style device some had guessed at. 9to5Google relays the report, and the story is already traveling — the Times' own Bits blog carries it under the banner 'Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve.'
First-order effects
- Google now has a publicly tracked rumor on its hands: the project is unconfirmed, so the company must decide whether to keep silent on Google X or begin shaping expectations for a product category it has never acknowledged.
Second-order effects
- If the reported glasses are real, display and optics suppliers gain a candidate customer for a product class that does not yet exist at scale, while Apple — whose iPod Nano was the default guess for the device — and other handset makers face pressure to answer on body-worn computing.
Third-order effects
- A confirmed HUD-glasses program would mark the first serious move by a major platform company to pull the computer interface off the phone screen and onto the face, testing whether consumers accept computing as something worn — and whether hardware has to start answering to fashion as much as function.
The trend: Wearable computing is emerging as the next platform contest beyond the smartphone, with Google X's rumored heads-up display glasses the most concrete data point yet.