Google shutting down Glass Explorer program, will transition product to Nest’s Tony Fadell

Goodbye, Google Glass.

The Glass Explorer program, which launched at Google I/O in 2012 and began delivering a year later, is being shut down, and the current iteration of the product shelved.

While rumours have swirled for months that Google would release a new version of its heads-up display at I/O this year, powered by a brand new Intel chip, the company looks to be stepping away from consumer availability of the product for now.

Glass is not going away entirely, though. Its team, headed up by Ivy Ross, will move from Google X, the company’s “blue sky” division headed up by co-founder Sergey Brin, to former Nest CEO Tony Fadell’s home automation division. Google purchased Nest in early 2014 for $3.2 billion, and Fadell, who worked as a product designer for Apple and co-created the original iPod, has reportedly taken a more central role in governing Google’s various hardware lines.

Google never made Glass available in Canada, and only a few thousand people worldwide own the $1,500 USD wearable, but it has heavily influenced both consumer and enterprise technology. From the rise of the “Glasshole” to the mainstream adoption of heads-up augmentation, Glass’s legacy is already being felt.

[source]BBC News[/source]