Since the Monster of Mountain View doesn’t have a fashion sense, it’s turning to a major maker of chic eyewear to make its “Glass” spyware look sleek:
Google has signed on Italian optical wear firm Luxottica to help it design and build future versions of its Glass face-based computing system, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal confirmed by Google to TechCrunch. The news comes from Luxottica itself, which says it will build new versions of Google’s wearable, which could theoretically be branded under Ray-Ban, Oakley, Miu Miu, Armani and many others that Luxottica counts as sub-brands.
The partnership announced today fulfills a prediction made by Mark Hurst and others when “Glass” was made available for purchase and use last year by Google fanboys:
Like every other shiny innovation these days, Google Glass will live or die solely on the experience it creates for people. The immediate, most visible problem in the Glass experience is how dorky the user looks while wearing it. No one wants to be the only person in the bar dressed like a cyborg from a 1992 virtual-reality movie. It’s embarrassing. Early adopters will abandon Google Glass if they don’t sense the social approval they seek while wearing it.
Google seems to have calculated this already and recently announced a partnership with Warby Parker, known for its designer glasses favored by the all-important younger demographic.
Google has shown it’s committed to doing whatever it takes to push this invasive product on people. Never mind that it’s fatally flawed; Google considers its potential future profits more important and more valuable than our privacy.