Well, for now anyway. Do I think Glass is worth $1500? No. Did I regret my purchase? Absolutely not. As for now, Google NEED to sell Glass at this cost. And they NEED people to come to one of their offices to pick up Glass. I will present my argument in a bit.
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| Photo courtesy of +Noble Ackerson |
Consider this. You just got back home from picking up Glass. After taking hundreds of photos of the Google campus, taking videos during the Google Campus tour, being told that you can't take videos during the Google tour Campus, you went home. On your way home you're excited by the navigation feature on Glass.
Oh wait, that's just my experience.
Anyway, you got back to your apartment, plugged your Glass into your laptop, and then do an evil laugh to all the #glasswaiters in Google+ (That's not what I did, I promise).
After a while, you took the charger off and realized that Glass is currently updating. Remembering what the Glass Guide said (not to remove the charger while Glass is updating), you plug the it back into the laptop. Some time later Glass finished updating, and after putting them on, you see the following screen.
First of all, this is not really what I was seeing. It is a screenshot of the Android Clockwork Recovery. Mine was showing the default Android Recovery. I wasn't able to take screenshot, because the device basically was frozen. The touch pad on the frame doesn't work.
Let's say that you know nothing about Android Recovery. I'm pretty sure you'll panic and freak out by the idea of seeing something similar to BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) on Windows, and the fact that you can't do anything about it. You started cursing how you just spent $1500 for a broken product.
Fortunately, this screen is familiar to me since I've been doing some rooting on my Galaxy Nexus phone. I knew it was nothing serious. All I had to do was just hard resetting the device.
Glass at its current state is definitely not ready for public release. They need to sell the device at $1500 because they want developers and people that really have passion about Glass to use them. These two groups will try to do whatever they can to justify the price of the device. Imagine Glass being sold for, say, $300 at its current state. Most people (non-developers/enthusiast) will just play with it for a little bit, realized that Glass doesn't do much, and let it dust in the corner.
Developers can easily justify their purchase if they're planning to develop for Glass. They can't charge money or put ads for Glassware (apps for Glass) yet, but I'm pretty sure they'll be able in the future.
The second target will be people that have been following the development of Glass. Most will be tech savvy, and understand the disadvantage of Glass as a prototype. They understand the fact that they're sacrificing features to be early adopters.
Google never hid the fact that Glass is still in a prototype. When I pick up the device, my Guide continuously reminded me about that fact whenever I point to Glass' weaknesses. So even after all that, why are they still willing to spend that much money for Glass? I really think being an early adopter plays a big part in this case. Other than that, they're just excited about the technology, and want to be the first of using Glass for their activities. There are other occupations, of course, like photographers/bloggers/journalist/movie makers that can benefit from having a Glass, even at the current state.
The mandatory pickup was also an important process. They really want you to be comfortable with how you wear Glass and knowing how to do basic tasks before you go home with Glass. They want you to be satisfied with your purchase. They also want good publicity of course, since happy customers will spread positive messages. They probably allow I/O pre-orders to have their devices shipped since they think most people attending Google I/O will be able to figure out the device by themselves (we know a lot of them just came for the goodies).
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Please feel free to agree/disagree in the comment :)
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