It looks like Google hasn’t given up on Google Glass just yet. According to a new report from DigiTimes suggests that the third generation of Glass has finished the development stage and is now in pilot production.
The report notes that the 3rd-gen Glass is as light as ever, weighing as little as a pair of regular glasses. There’s a catch though — the battery life will reportedly suffer as a result of the light build. In fact, battery life is so low that users may only get 30 minutes of use in between charges.
The shift of attention away from battery life is a pretty big change. The first generation of Google Glass had a 780mAh battery, while the second generation stepped things up to 820mAh battery. Both of these devices offered at least a few hours of normal use.
It’s currently unclear exactly who Google is targeting with the 3rd-gen Glass. After the initial launch of Google Glass, Google began targeting enterprise and business users. It’s possible that given the weight, Google wants to bring Glass once again into consumer consciousness, but given the battery life — or lack thereof — we think it’s more likely that Glass will remain squarely focused at certain industries.
There are other details we don’t know just yet, too. For example, it’s not known how much the new version of Google Glass will cost, however previous versions have come in at around $1,000. Other details about the specs of the device also have yet to be revealed, such as the processor, amount of RAM, and resolution of the display.
An official release date for the device currently isn’t known, but it could be a while, given the fact that Google announced and upgraded the Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 at the end of May.
The 3rd-gen Google Glass is being built by Pegatron Corporation and Quantra Computer — which is a slight shift, given the fact that previously Quantra was the sole supplier of Glass.
Google isn’t the only company working on augmented reality glasses. Apple is reportedly working on AR glasses of its own, through recent reports suggest that Apple is taking a break in the development of the new device.
