Lenovo’s answer to Google Glass may be on the way. The company introduced a prototype of a wearable device that you wear like a pair of glasses this week and the company is also partnering with Vuzix to bring that company’s smart glasses to China.
The move is part of Lenovo’s new NBD initiative to develop a range of connected devices including smart glasses, air purifiers, routers, and more.
Lenovo will begin offering Vuzix M100 smart glasses to developers by September. Like Google Glass, these developer-edition devices won’t be cheap: they’ll cost about $1300.
Also like Google Glass, the M100 and Lenovo’s own C1 smart glasses are designed to put a small screen just above your eye so that you can see notifications and interact with apps without pulling out a phone or tablet.
It’s not clear yet how much consumer demand there will be for smart glasses… although a lot probably depends on how much devices like these sell for once they’re targeted at consumers and not just developers. But as PC sales level off and smartphone and tablet sales growth slows consumer electronics companies are looking for the next big thing… and many are hoping that thing is wearables including smartwatches and smart glasses.
At this point these devices are basically expensive companions for your smartphone… which means at best they’ll only appeal to a subset of people who already use smartphones. But that could change as wearables become more common and more powerful.
$80 in materials, selling for $1500… I think I have to do a kickstarter.
As for killer apps: everything that Google’s software blocks? Like clandestine video recording, audio recording, getting all data and dirt on the person sitting across the table from you? Little profitable side deals with the NSA, linking up all your footage for effective denunciation?
Oh wait, didn’t we already have several societies where every human being you encounter had a 50/50 chance to be an informant of the fascist regime? (fascism = close collaboration of industry and government against the citizens of the country)
That is so awesome.
Anyone come up with that killer app for the original ones yet?
No, the current ones are too primitive and more important the battery life stinks. Which is why people are glomming onto them now. They know both of those problems are tech issues and will be fixed eventually; and the killer apps are obvious then. They want to be there early, getting products ready to roll when the tech gets there, ready to be the next zillionaire.
Laws won’t stop these things once they break out. Everybody and their dog will have em and you won’t forbid them at risk of losing all of your customers. Cities won’t ban them either. Once they work, the benefit will be like smartphones before it, so overwhelming nothing will stand in its way. Remember when, briefly, there were bans on camera phones? When was the last time ya saw one of those outside a government agency or contractor processing classified info?
Also awesome but isn’t that just buying a cart because of some vague promise of a horse in the future?
We have been riding the Moore’s Law roller coaster of ever improving tech specs for over forty years now, betting against it now probably isn’t the winning move.