Google Glass has made waves since the search giant first announced the project last year, and with many developers and creatives currently testing and helping to enhance the wearable tech ready for launch early next year, we’ve just caught wind of the kind of price point we should be expecting. Glass has long since been perceived as an expensive gadget, and as such, many analysts and commentators have been quick to suggest that $1000+ would simply be too steep a climb for the average consumer. But if a report originating from the China Post carries any weight, the actual retail cost of Glass will be significantly cheaper than that.
It’s understandable that many have been skeptical of whether Glass could make a widespread impression, since, for a long time, it was looking like a gadget reserved for those with plenty of disposable cash. Indeed, those who managed to get their hands on a pair of Google Glass through the Explorer program each had to pony up $1500 apiece, and while the project has generated a terrific buzz throughout the technology spectrum, that’s simply too much for most people to be paying.
But China Post believes the actual retail price will be less than a fifth of that figure, instead suggesting that the end user will need to fork out only $299, and if you’ve been saving up big bucks in order to get your hands on one of the most sought-after gadgets in recent times, you may not have to exercise as much thrift as you perhaps initially provisioned for.
Of course, seeing as the number is just an estimate based upon Taiwan’s Topology Research Institute, a firm that recently had a pop at trying to figure out the total material cost of building Google Glass en masse. Nevertheless, it’s definitely promising, and if the Big G does want Glass to be a mass market product, the price is going to have to be more suitable than that paid by those early developers.
Wearable tech is certainly making big steps in 2013, and with Samsung said to be preparing a smart watch to compete with Apple’s purported iWatch project, we could well be carrying around more than just a smartphone with us in a year’s time.
Would you buy Glass at 300 bucks?
(Source: TheChinaPost)
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