Google’s new Glass At Work program aims to capitalize at the enterprise’s interest in Google Glass, whether consumers are still skeptical.
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After months of selling Glass as a way accessory and pushing back against misperceptions, without an evident shift in public perception, Google has extended its Explorer Program to businesses to be able to win acceptance for its computerized eyewear within the workplace.
Glass at Work, announced Monday, formalizes a pathway toward enterprise use of Glass that many developers had already explored all alone. Google says that it has noticed how a few of its Glass Explorers have used Glass to advance business goals, and that several companies have already got begun working with enterprise software developers to create Glassware relevant to their business processes and customers. It has asked developers engaged on enterprise-oriented Glassware to get in contact.
Two organizations which have embraced Glass are the oilfield services company Schlumberger and the Washington Capitals hockey team. Schlumberger partnered with Wearable Intelligence, a startup fascinated by wearable technology, to take advantage of Glass to complement the security and efficiency of workers within the field. The Washington Capitals has been working with APX Labs, another wearable technology firm, to deliver real-time statistics, instant replays, and alternate camera angles to fans wearing Glass.
[No, you will not be a cyborg in case you wear Google Glass. Read more: 10 Google Glass Myths, Translated.]
“We’re initially of a dramatic shift in how enterprise workers can be empowered by technology,” Wearable Intelligence said in a blog post over the weekend. “To-date, technology has predominantly touched the lives of information workers: those people sitting behind computers at desks. Most individuals don’t work this manner.”
The implication is that cup and similar technology might be useful those who work with their hands or on their feet — modes of labor that limit interaction with desktop or mobile devices.
Such scenarios have already got been realized. Let’s say, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center recently began testing a version of Glass that have been modified to satisfy healthcare privacy regulations so emergency room doctors can use the device to view patient data while keeping their hands free.
Glass at Work has an upside for Google: The perception of Glass as a $1,500 indulgence for the 1% doesn’t matter much in enterprise settings, where the gap of shareholders anesthetizes organizations from vendor price gouging. This is often doubly true within the healthcare industry, where the cost of acetaminophen may be marked up up to 10,000%. A healthcare-compliant version of Glass could probably opt for five figures without anyone batting a watch.
But Google’s interest in enterprise use of Glass is perhaps more realpolitik than actual enthusiasm. Until consumer demand for wearables was found out and exploited, Glass won’t provide the size or data that Google should matter to its hugely profitable advertising business. Enterprise users should not inconsequential, but they require hand holding, salespeople, and industry-specific accommodations, inclusive of privacy requirements that would preclude use of Gmail or the like. They require a degree of service that imposes extra costs.
Google’s enterprise business has flourished largely because of Google Apps channel partners and integrators. While Google continues its consumer-focused campaign to make being a cyborg socially acceptable, companies which includes APX Labs and Wearable Intelligence will find the right way to make Glass fit comfortably within the workplace.
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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications corresponding to New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio
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