Google Glass ‘Enterprise Edition’ brings new larger prism, Intel Atom CPU, optional external battery pack
We told you last week that Google is internally referring to its next iteration of Google Glass as “Enterprise Edition” or “EE,” and now we've uncovered information about the soon-to-be-launched device's hardware.
Context & Ripple Effects
Last week's report that the next Google Glass is an 'Enterprise Edition' with expanded testing later this year now has its hardware footprint: a larger prism, an Intel Atom CPU, and an optional external battery pack. This is not a spec bump so much as a re-specification — every change points at all-day workplace use rather than consumer wear.
The enterprise turn was already visible in follow-up coverage of a foldable, water-resistant, ruggedized build, and an FCC appearance confirmed the device was nearing regulatory review. The question this article answers is what Silicon Google chose — and choosing Intel's low-power Atom line signals a compute-first, durability-second device.
First-order effects
- Intel lands a marquee wearable design win inside Google's flagship headset, while enterprise testers get a bigger prism and an optional external battery that treat shift-length uptime as a first-class requirement rather than a consumer afterthought.
- Google's pilot population effectively changes: instead of courting individual 'Explorers,' the expanded testing program later this year puts units on workplace users whose evaluation criteria are reliability and integration, not style.
Second-order effects
- Ruggedization and battery modularity push Glass's bill of materials toward industrial-grade components, repositioning it against purpose-built workplace devices rather than against smartphones or fashion accessories.
- Battery life becomes the competitive spec to beat — a weakness the external pack only patches, which sets up the pressure that later produced Enterprise Edition 2's claimed ~8 hours of battery life.
Third-order effects
- If the arc holds, Glass matures into a multi-generation enterprise product line — borne out by the official 2017 launch with prescription lenses, faster WiFi, and better security and by EE2's switch to Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR1, trading Intel's general-purpose Atom for XR-specialized silicon.
- The consumer smart-glasses category Google pioneered quietly cedes its retail-fashion framing to a B2B deployment model, where distribution runs through employers and procurement cycles replace hype cycles.
The trend: Smart glasses are being rebuilt around enterprise workflows, with each generation trading consumer styling for ruggedized hardware and XR-specialized silicon.