With all the attention Google Glass is getting before it’s even launched, one would think it was an Apple product. It’s not, but it has the buzz level of the new Corvette Stingray.
Now, it’s making news by doing something that other tech companies have avoided for a while. They’re going to have Foxconn build Glass in the United States. Foxconn is a Taiwan company that has been associated with Apple products as well as other tech giants. For Glass, they’ll be operating out of a plant in Santa Clara, California.
This isn’t the first domestic move. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that certain Macs were going to be built in the US. The trend is a good one in many ways but makes one wonder what it will do with prices. The whole reason for the exodus over the last few decades to have technology gadgets and devices built in whole or in part over seas, particular in China or Taiwan, is price. The labor and in many cases the parts are much cheaper to build offshore than in the United States. Will the move make prices go up?
They can use all of the domestic good will that they can get. They are already getting pre-banned in many places across the country and were the subject of a bill proposed in West Virginia banning them from being used while driving.
According to a report by TIME:
This week, Google announced plans to invite 8,000 users to test Google Glass, which have already been available to developers for $1,500, and are expected to hit stores later this year or early next year. The device is the most high-profile example of the latest Silicon Valley trend: wearable computing. For its part, Apple is rumored to be developing a computerized watch product, but unlike Google Glass, no one has seen the device in public.
