Apple and Google independently developing wearable, reality augmenting smartphones

By Jeff Hughes December 19, 2011

Some of us are quite attached to our mobile devices, much to the chagrin of anything and anyone that isn’t a smartphone screen. Apple and Google are reportedly looking to change that. They want to integrate our smartphones into daily life better by developing wearable mobile devices that act more like a window to the real world, rather than a screen.

According to the New York Times Bits blog, Apple has been secretly working on a wearable computer, much like the wrist worn iPod Nano, which will integrate Siri. The NYT sources say that a small number of Apple employees have been rounded up for “conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices.” One device the company is toying with was described as a wrist worn “curved-glass iPod.”

On the Google end, the search giant has been tasking researchers at the secret Google X labs to develop devices that relay information to your Android powered smartphone. Google has reportedly been hiring a slew of engineers who specialize in wearable computers from engineering universities or places like Nokia Labs and Apple.

According to a 9to5Google, this project the search company is working on is a pair of augmented reality glasses, which will plug users into realtime search results based on what they are currently viewing. The device would be unobtrusive, and would look like a pair of normal thick-rimmed glasses with a few buttons on the side. 9To5Google says that that the device “communicates directly with the Cloud over IP,” though it speculates that Google glasses would connect via GPS or Android’s Internet using WiFi or Bluetooth.

Google may be telegraphing this new wearable product with a recent blog announcement about a Google Goggles upgrade earlier this month. Google Goggles 1.7 acts as a better decoder ring since it doesn’t require a photo to be shot, but returns results on multiple items in realtime; much like the rumors of the Terminator-vision glasses. There are no clues yet as to when and if the new augmented reality glasses will be released.

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In case you aren't familiar with Google Glass, here is a rundown. Glass is currently only available to developers, and costs $1500. It provides users with an image that floats in front of the right eye, and has a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video built-in, a microphone for voice commands, and 12GB of usable storage. It also supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but it works best in partnership with an Android or iOS smartphone in your pocket.

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Glassholes
Google is an engineering-led company; it tosses a lot of products out in the market, listens to feedback, and modifies the products over time (or abandons them as failures, as often the case has been). Google Glass followed this formula by debuting as a very raw offering, earning it a pretty bad reputation before it was truly ready for prime time. Glass users are derogatively referred to as “Glassholes” which is hardly a term of endearment, or one that suggests high status. That’s a reputation that may keep all but the geekiest customers from buying the final version.
Google’s ultimate goal as a company is to categorize information and serve up ads. Glass is designed to do both, while also doing some things users think is interesting, like allowing them to read and respond vocally to email hands-free through the projected display. Google isn’t very focused on security, which is why Glass has already been hacked, and why many companies have apparently already issued policies banning them for employees. Not surprisingly, the idea of a camera on an employee’s head that can live stream whatever that employee sees upsets some security folks.
While Google’s release-and-refine process gets product into customers’ hands quickly, selling such a crude product also subjects it to a lot of scrutiny at a vulnerable phase.
Apple iGlass
Apple’s approach as a company is very different. Its team won’t let a product out before designers believe it is ready. This allows them to craft the best first impression possible, right out of the gate. When the product arrives, it’s polished, and more exclusive.
Apple’s insistence on tightly controlling its products naturally makes them more secure, and the company takes potential security concerns more seriously. Apple would be less likely to put a camera on its glasses, or would at least provide visual notification for when the camera was operating. Otherwise, Apple would have to ban its product from its own campus.
For Apple, the success of Android is a cautionary tale that shows Google can sometimes get things right enough.
Apple seldom makes the first product, it just waits until it can do the first good product. With MP3 players, a variety of vendors beat Apple to the market, but by studying these competitors, Apple engineers perfected the iPod, which took the market by storm. The iPhone was far from the first smartphone, or even the first to rely entirely on a touchscreen – the LG Prada was almost identical in hardware. Apple just made massive improvements to the user experience, and – yet again – the iPhone took that market by storm. Apple’s first tablet came almost a decade behind Microsoft’s, because it took that long to develop the core technology that made the thin, light, and relatively inexpensive iPad work. And it took the market by storm.
This suggests that iGlass is likely years off, but when it arrives, it will be better looking and backed by stronger services and experiences than Google’s offering, which is very likely to have died off in the meantime.
Doing it fast vs. Doing it right
This assessment doesn’t mean that Google can’t still lock up the market. The company has generally proven highly capable with Web services, and there is an inherent advantage to being first. If it can survive the painful birthing process, Google could own the market far before Apple is ready to enter. For Apple, the success of Android is a cautionary tale that shows Google can sometimes get things right enough.
Apple glasses would likely be far more elegant and far less risky, but I’m starting to wonder if Tim Cook’s Apple can execute at that level any more. Steve Jobs’ Apple proved it could build a better product late in the game, but the jury is still out on whether that can still happen today. The Apple smartwatch expected later this year will very likely give us an answer. Until then, watch out for all those damn Glassholes! Who knows what those cameras are catching, and who is watching them. I suggest you be on your best behavior.

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