LOS ANGELES — Google Glass, as we know it, is dead.
Google this week said it was ceasing production and halting individual sales of its wearable computer that houses an optical head-mounted display. Sales end Monday.
The company said its Glass team would move out of the “Google X” incubator labs and become a separate division under current manager Ivy Ross, according to a statement from the company.
Two years ago, the adult entertainment industry was full of optimism over Glass as another vehicle to deliver and record sexually explicit content.
Even Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison said that the one-two punch of Glass, which costs $1,500, and porn was "unstoppable."
One adult company, MiKandi, which runs an adult Google app store, made it a mission to develop ways to exploit the device despite the fact that developer policies excluded sexually explicit material.
XBIZ also jumped on the bandwagon, producing the first-ever Glass porn production, in association with MiKandi, starring porn stars James Deen and Andy San Dimas who uncovered some powerful hidden capabilities of Google Glass in the video.
But Google's experiment had a few bugs it could not overcome.
Some public places, such as bars and restaurants, banned people from wearing Glass on their premises, and early adopters complained that the technology was not developing in the ways that had been promised.
And now it has been discontinued. But Google could resurrect it with a more polished and affordable approach. The company has given no specific date for when the next version of Glass might be available.
"Google really put wearables on the map with Google Glass, and propelled the wearables industry forward by daring to be bold," MiKandi's Jen McEwen told XBIZ."I don't think they get nearly enough credit as they should. With Google Glass, they aimed for the stars, but landed on the moon.
"We're excited to see what the next version will be. It's an exciting time for wearables, virtual reality and augmented reality — especially considering Google's recent $500 million investment in Magic Leap. What's coming next will blow our minds. We can't wait to put porn on it."