Google Glass Losing Support From Developers and Early Adopters

A couple weeks ago we covered the fact that wearing Google Glass while driving is as dangerous as texting while driving, according to a study conducted by the University of Central Florida. This week it appears Glass is once again making the news; this time under fire by speculation that it could become one of this decade's biggest tech flops.

Last year Google's Chairman admitted that wearing and operating Google Glass in some places is inappropriate and “weird.” Granted, we already have Bluetooth headsets that create awkward situations in public when other people think the user is talking to themselves, but talking to the robot in your eyewear seems a bit more strange than having a phone conversation with another human being, especially when you're standing in line at the grocery store or crammed in a packed subway.

Not only has there been criticism that wearing Google Glass is “inappropriate in some places” and “dangerous while driving,” (that might not be a problem in the future if Google's self-driving cars takeoff), apparently the futuristic device provokes insults as well, even earning the early wearers of the Glass Explorer program the derogatory name “Glassholes.”

With all of the above negativity aside, this week's news is much worse. According to Reuters, 9 out of 16 app developers contacted by the news agency stated that they have stopped working on Google Glass apps altogether.

Developers Hesitant Due to Lack of Market

It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that developers are completely abandoning Google Glass because they don't believe that it can become successful on a mass-scale. While this may be the case in some scenarios, it appears that most of the app developers are hesitant to allocate their efforts towards a device that currently has little to no market when compared to other devices.

However, not all developers have lost confidence in the future of Glass. In fact, most of the larger developers like OpenTable and Facebook have stayed part of the growing list of almost 100 apps that have been developed for Google Glass. There's also evidence that Google Glass apps will soon be coming to the Google Play Store, although it is likely that we won't see Glass make its commercial debut until 2015.

In addition to app developers leaving, several of Google's employees who worked on the Glass project from the beginning have since left the company, including the project's lead developer Babak Parviz, who left Google in favor of Amazon back in July of this year.

Too Nerdy and Intrusive to Reach Commercial Success?

According to many tech analysts and app developers, there are two main issues that are keeping Google Glass from becoming a commercial success in the near future:

1. They're Way Too Nerdy for Some People - It's not necessarily that they look too nerdy by themselves. Aside from the tiny computer in top right corner, they don't look much different than a pair of regular glasses, and Google's partnership with the Luxottica Group (owner of Oakley and Ray-Ban) could actually create some rather stylish pairs. It is moreso the fact that the wearer feels too nerdy because they have to talk to Glass to get it to perform most tasks. There's also the ever-present concern that no one else around you is wearing one of these things and you might just look like a complete social outcast.

2. They're Way Too Spy-Surveillance-Sneaky for Some People – In addition to the wearer themselves feeling uncomfortable, the Glass headset also has a lot of onlookers paranoid and upset at the sheer presence of the device. In fact, because of the device's ability to sneakily record everything it sees, Google Glass wearers have been thrown out of restaurants, interrogated by the FBI at movie theaters (we're assuming the that workers thought the person was trying to bootleg the movie using Google Glass), and there have even been multiple cases of assault on Google Glass wearers (its easy to see how someone could take extreme offense if they think they're being recorded with spyglasses without their permission).

Glass Selling at Half Price on eBay?

So what do you think happens to a lot of those $1,500 Google Glass headset that were sold to the once-zealous early adopters? You would think that such extensively hyped, 'Explorer' edition smart glasses would turn into collectors' items and no one would want to sell them until years down the line, right?

Well, apparently a lot of those pairs are going for as low as half the retail price on eBay. This not only hurts the image of the Glass project itself, implying that many of the early adopters don't even want their pair and are even willing to sell at half price, it also potentially hurts the early sales of Glass if and when it finally makes its long-awaited commercial debut next year.

After all, there are going to be a lot of people that would rather pay half-price for a gently used Explorer version than the full $1500, creating a situation in which the actual product is undercutting itself with a premature 'used' market that places a much lower value on the product during launch time.

Then again, it remains to be seen how much better the commercial launch version will be than the Explorer version that is being resold on eBay at the moment.  Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, buyers of resold Google Glass sets will not receive support, although Google has stated that they don't plan to brick any resold devices.