Thursday 17 April 2014

No Transparency on Google Glass Sales

Google shut down its online Google Glass store Wednesday, but the tech giant isn't sharing details on how many units it sold.

The company sold Glass to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, which was the first time consumers could buy the device without having to apply to Google's Explorer program. The site will remain active so interested customers can purchase accessories, should they choose, but no more Glass units will be sold, according to a Google spokesperson.

Google was selling Glass for $1,500 a pair.

Although the store shut down, it doesn't appear that Google actually sold all of its Glass. Visitors to the site will see "Out of Stock" labels on each color, but Google is simply marking them that way — not necessarily confirming they are sold out.

"We were getting through our stock faster than we expected, so we decided to shut the store down," a company spokesperson wrote in an email to press. "While you can still access the site, Glass will be marked as sold out. We are leaving the site open so Explorers can still get any accessories they need."
When Google sold out all white pairs of Glass (referred to as "Cotton"), the company included an update on its Google+ page. Google did not mention any additional colors as being sold out before announcing the store would close.

The sale was the first big test to see how popular Glass might be with the general public. The price tag remains steep, and developers are still building out products for the device, which means interested consumers may want to wait for a better, cheaper product down the road.

Image: GOOGLE