A lire sur: http://readwrite.com/2013/05/10/why-google-glass-will-crater
Google Glass is now “unofficially officially” out
in the wild, early reviews are in, and they’re not spectacular. I’ve
been a Glass skeptic from the start, but now I’m just going to come
right out and say it: If the developer version is at all an accurate
representation of what Glass will look like as a finished product, it's
going to fail.
Here's why.
No One Likes To Wear Glasses
If people liked wearing glasses, we wouldn’t live in a
world where many people opt to wear contacts. I actually don’t like
wearing contacts (my eyes are sensitive) and because my insurance covers
the cost of buying glasses I dutifully trot in, excited by the prospect
that this time, I’m going to find the perfect pair.
An unboxing and overview of what's in the box with Google
Glass, a moonshot project that might just be crazy enough to catch on. I
speak from experience: No matter how well they’re fitted, glasses slip.
They pinch. They’re easy to forget. They cause headaches. They’re
inconvenient when they’re on and even more so when we need to take them
off. Put simply, glasses are a hassle and despite my best intentions I
give up on wearing them after only a couple months.
No matter your level of respect for Google, it won’t have
solved these problems. If anything, they’re only going to be exacerbated
by the fact that Glass will need to fit perfectly in order to work
perfectly. Also by the fact that people who like to wear glasses can't
currently wear Glass, because it doesn't work with... glasses!
Whether we like wearing glasses or not, we definitely
don’t like wearing ugly glasses and Google Glass is nothing if not ugly.
(Take a look at any picture that doesn’t feature a professional model
at a professional photo shoot and tell me I’m wrong.)
Those of us who are forced to wear corrective glasses are
pretty particular about what we’ll wear, and Google says we can have any
design we like as long as it’s ugly.
Google Glass Is Already A Parody Of Itself
The iPad elicited pre-release chuckles because we’re all
children and we think feminine hygiene products are hilarious. Apple put
an end to our juvenile japes by releasing a product that worked well.
More important, perhaps, the iPad was announced and then it was released
and reviewed as a finished product.
As a result, we were able to walk into a store, buy one
and draw our own conclusions. And we did. Millions of times,
collectively.
Not so with Google Glass. The devices are out there, yes,
but most of us will never know someone who owns a pre-release pair. Many
of us already understand that wearing prescription glasses kind of
sucks, and even if we have no real idea what it’s like to meld a tiny
screen to that experience, adding to bad doesn’t often make good.
This means we’ll spend the next several months forming our
opinions based on preconceived notions, reviews, word-of-mouth and,
yes, Saturday Night Live skits.
The Reviews Have Been Terrible
Whether it’s battery life, how well they function, the
price to value ratio, or build quality, no one seems to have much nice
to say about Google Glass in its current form. (ReadWrite's Taylor Hatmaker is one exception.)
You might retort that it’s unfair to review a beta product, but Google
could have released Glass alongside an NDA or an embargo, and it didn’t
do that. It unconditionally put the “future of tech” in the hands of any
journalist who was willing to shell out $1500 and hoped for the best.
Is it possible that Google will completely overhaul their
flagship next-generation mobile computer in an effort to address these
issues? Sure it is. I think it’s unlikely, but it’s possible. Does it
matter? Is “Joe Average” going to spend his money on a first-of-its-kind
product that was savaged in early reviews? Not likely.
Word-Of-Mouth Has Been Terrible
Glasshole. It’s not terribly clever — okay, it's
actually sort of clever — but it caught on. And it makes a strong and
succinct point that if you wear these, you’re kind of a dick. This isn’t
a jab at the product, it’s a commentary about the person wearing the
product. If you’re wearing them, that person is you.
That’s the kiss of death for any device, let alone an
expensive product that also happens to be getting so-so reviews at best.
(Maybe Glass won’t be expensive once it's actually released. But Google
is cultivating the idea that the device will be expensive by keeping
silent about the eventual price.)
Live from New York: Google Glass Is Terrible!
If Glass were well-reviewed, I’d leave this alone. The problem isn’t that Saturday Night Live is making fun of a new tech product; they
do that all the time. The problem is that Saturday Night live is
parodying a product and it’s hard to tell that it’s a parody. I’ve seen
videos of people wearing Glass and they’re experiencing all the issues
that Fred Armisen sends up in his sketch.
The joke is that his character is going out of the way to
seem enthusiastic about Glass despite all the glitches, and therein lies
the difference between parody and reality: Most of the “real” reviewers
seem to be just as confounded by things like poor speech recognition,
but far from being enthusiastic, they seem mostly disappointed that “the
future” is so wonky.
Google needs an army of disciples who will evangelize despite flaws, and thus far, it seems like they’ve just got Robert Scoble. (This is a good time, I think, to bring up my point about professional models again.)
Google needs to get out in front of the impression that Glass doesn’t work well, and it has yet to do so.
Wear No Evil
Add to all that my ongoing concerns about wearer
discomfort, the potential for long-term negative impacts on our vision,
inevitable privacy issues, and the likelihood that businesses will ban
the use of Google Glass outright.
Maybe Google is giving us a preview of the future. Maybe
we should all be excited that Google is willing push the envelope by
trying something new.
For now, though, maybe we should all come to terms with the idea that Google is facing a failure of epic proportions.
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