Although Google Glass has yet to make a huge splash into the highly competitive mobile gadget market, it appears that Samsung is already developing a competing product.
Samsung plans to unveil “Galaxy Glass” in Berlin this coming September, but it seems the company is being tight-lipped about how it will be different or better than Google Glass, which currently has a growing list of applications being developed in various industries that go beyond the entertainment realm of being able to watch video, listen to music or snap photos in one’s field of view while sporting the wearable device.
The announcement, which reveals very little in details about the actual hardware, states that “the smart glass to be introduced by Samsung is a new concept of wearable device that can lead to an exciting culture of communication… that will present our aim to lead the new market with proven capability. Wearable devices can’t generate profits immediately. Steady releases of devices are showing our firm commitment as a leader in new markets.”
The Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which Samsung debuted just last year, received a less-than-exciting reception, touted as too expensive, limited and difficult to use in its present form. But this is the first reliable report that the company plans to take on Google Glass, which is expected to be commercially available to the general population in the latter half of 2014. Conspicuously absent from the conversation is Apple, which hasn’t even hinted as to whether it will vie for a piece of the tech glasses market.
Whether Samsung can create a product that can compete viably with Google Glass—which is still in beta testing—remains to be seen. However, the new competition across the spectrum of wearable tech—which is evolving so quickly that forecasters are already speculating about smart contact lenses, eyelashes and fingernails—is exciting to industry insiders, heralding a major shift in how we will interact and communicate with our computers and mobile devices as well as each other in the coming years.
