If you were one of the people who signed up last year at Google’s I/O conference to be a part of the “Glass Explorer” program, you might be getting your instructions on how to actually…purchase the thing and get it into your geeky little hands.
In case you weren’t sure, Google Glass is real, and they’re shipping as we speak.
Today, my number was called and I received the following email, which comes along with a phone number to call, a unique code and a link to a “Glass Safety Notices and Terms of Sale” that you must accept before you place your order:
Google said in its previous email to Glass Explorers that 2,000 were pre-ordered, and I was number 933. That means that the company is filling out requests for units pretty quickly, if they’re going in order. (UPDATE: We’re told by other Glass Explorers that the fulfillment is not going in order.) Sure, some people might not follow through once they actually face dropping over $1,500 for them, but it’s safe to venture a guess that most will opt to purchase them.
When you call the number, which I’ve blanked out from the email, you’re asked for your unique code. The process is pretty quick and you can decide on whether you’d like to pick your Glass up or have it shipped to you. Sadly, the tangerine and sky colors were already out of stock, so I opted to pick up the “shale” flavor of grey.
I set up an appointment to pick them up in Mountain View tomorrow. I’m told that if you pick them up in person, in either Mountain View, New York or Los Angeles, you’ll meet with a member of the Glass team to have them fitted properly and then get a basic walk-through of the device and operating system. You’re also encouraged to “bring a friend.”
The person on the phone was extremely nice, congratulating me on getting the device along the way. After all, to try these things out, and be on the cutting edge of technology, you’re dropping some serious cash.
Since the Glass Mirror API developer guide documentation is out, along with the API itself, more developers will start creating applications on top of the Glass platform once they get their hands on them. It certainly doesn’t hurt that some of the biggests VCs in Silicon Valley are lining up to fund these projects, too. I’m personally looking forward to creating a recipe application that will let me flip through ingredients and directions, hands-free, while I cook. Amazing, huh?
Plenty of questions remain about Google Glass, especially as to whether mainstream consumers will actually want them, how often people will actually wear them and how awkward things will be when you’re sitting across the table from someone who has a camera connected to the Internet in front of their eyeball. Having said that, Glass has gotten people excited, and you’re going to start seeing at least 2,000 more of them in the wild very soon.