7 reasons why Google Glass will fail

New gadgets. We love them. They bring excitement donin the days leading up to their launch and they give us reasons to walk up to strangers and ask them questions in hopes that they’ll let us give them a try. The same will hold true for Google Glass when it’s released. People will love on it. Eventually, it will fail.

The idea is a strong one. Wearable tech is all the rage right now and this is the closest one can get to having bionic, Terminator-style eyes. It will be reviewed and many bloggers will call it a life-changing, pseudo-religious experience, something that any geek with true nerd cred needs to have on their face at nearly all times. Over time, it will turn out to be a fad. Here’s why:

 

They aren’t very useful after the first week

Most of the things that will be done by users will be done in the first week after purchase. They’ll need to try this, try that, and try everything else that you can do with Glass, but then it simply becomes a novelty. You can’t play Angry Birds on it. You won’t be able to text, at least not in the traditional way. Streaming videos to an inch in front of your face or getting augmented reality versions of what’s in front of you will be first-week lookatme moments, then they will rarely be used.

The camera may be useful indefinitely. That all depends on the quality, ease of storage, shakiness, and other factors. Otherwise, the rest is all for show.

 

They’re a little too obnoxious

After several years of being in circulation, people still look like morons when they wear their bluetooth headset while not on a call. Some say they look like morons when they are on a call.

This won’t be any different. It may end up being worse. Google Glass will score big points at parties but will stand out like a sore thumb everywhere else just as bluetooth headsets once did. Once people become used to the headsets, they still won’t be very accepted. If anything, they’ll be shunned even more than bluetooth.

 

People wearing them will not be trusted by their peers

Everyone knows a prankster who post unflattering pictures and videos of their friends taken with a smartphone. That’s annoying, but at least you know what to watch for when they’re around. They can’t just walk around nonchalantly with nothing in their hand capturing embarrassing moments at the bar the way they’ll be able to do with Google Glass.

Even at the office, while people are talking badly about their jobs or bosses, nobody will be able to trust Mr Google Glass Wearing Guy. You never know when he’s recording you, after all.

 

They’re most useful where there’s limited internet

It’s great to be able to stream videos to your eyeballs, but the points when they could be most useful for this and other purposes are times when there’s no WiFi. Mobile data plans are getting more strict and it’s hard to imagine streaming video or recording videos from a cellular connection without having s0me challenges with usage.

Glass may be able to store data on mobile devices through bluetooth for upload when WiFi is available, but that sort of takes the fun out of it, doesn’t it?

 

They can’t replace anything

They aren’t a phone. In fact, they need a phone to work best. They aren’t going to replace iPods or iPads. They may replace a digital camera, but technically the phone already did that.

In essence, they’re an add-on product. They’re going to be just another gadget to buy, keep safe, and maintain. Other devices like smartphones and tablets helped to replace something else, but Google Glass does not.

 

Something better will come along

Whatever “it” is, it’s going to be epic. Technology is moving too quickly to believe that Google Glass is going to be cutting edge technology for longer than a year or two.

They simply don’t have anywhere to go with them. They will need to be replaced rather than improved and because they are a luxury item, there won’t be a ton of people who will be willing to upgrade to the next variation of Glass, whatever it may be. No, they’ll look at the next shiny object that comes along that’s completely different from Glass, at which time I’ll probably write an article similar to this one about that piece of technology.

 

The first tragic use of Glass will make them uncool

Perhaps it’s not a good thing that I can think of a dozen ways this can be used negatively. They’re ideal for documenting horrific crimes. They can be useful in committing others. I simply don’t want to go into the graphic details because I don’t want to give any sickos or criminals ideas, but if you think hard enough about it you can probably come up with something nefarious that could be perpetrated using Google Glass.

It could be something unintentional like a fatal accident indirectly caused by someone using the hands free components of Google Glass. Distracted driving can happen even when both hands are on the wheel. If there’s something on your face taking your attention away from the road, bad things can happen. Unfortunately, it’s not like cell phone use that can be witnessed while passing law enforcement. You don’t have to have your hand up to your face to operate Google Glass, so trying to discourage its use by writing tickets isn’t feasible. Some would say that they could be disconnected when traveling at a speed that indicated car travel, but then passengers would be hampered.

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Google Glass will likely be successful at first. It may continue. It’s likely going to fail. Then, we’ll get to wait for the iWatch.