What’s next for Google Glass? It was supposed to be the next big thing, it arrived in limited form… and then it seemed to lose a lot of its momentum. Was interest in the project being killed by the rise of smartwatches, delivering on the wearable dream while doing so through a much more approachable form factor? In the latter months of the 2014, it sounded like there could still be a future for Glass this year, even despite uncertain interest from the public – one of the few specific things we heard concerned a partnership with Intel. Now a new report asserts that Glass will indeed continue, though not without making a few big changes.

Early next week, Google is expected to end sales through its Glass Explorer program. Devs and business will still be able to get their hands on Glass somehow, but sales to individuals will end.

Well, at least for now – because Google’s supposed to have a new version of Glass in development for release later this year. Even then, it’s not clear how that new one might be sold (nor just what sort of changes Google has in mind), but new hardware sounds like a clear investment in the project’s future.

There’s also word of new Glass leadership, as Google moves Glass from its Google X lab to operate under the oversight of Nest’s Tony Fadell. More directly, Ivy Ross will continue to run Glass, but drawing Fadell into the loop may be the bigger news here, reflecting Google’s efforts to make Glass less of an experiment and more of a commercially viable product.

Source: The Wall Street Journal