All social issues aside, Google Glass is an impressive kit of technology. However, that might not be enough to secure its future. The novel PR campaign that is the Google Glass Explorer program seems to be failing. So much so that Google has started firing back at Google Glass haters with a series of pro-Glass factoids.
The company just shared “The Top 10 Google Glass Myths.” A sampling:
- Myth 1: Glass is the ultimate distraction from the real world
- Myth 7 – Glass is the perfect surveillance device
This comes a month after Google explained in a similar list how not to be a glasshole.
But as much as many hate Google Glass at the moment, Google needs to remember that consumers tend to hate everything when it first comes out.
“Almost everybody is reluctant to change almost everything. Whatever you learned as a kid you want to keep always,” Dean Kamen told SXSW attendee Ron Miller who then explained this phenomenon in this post. Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and other things, should understand quite well this early-adopter hate.
On some levels the Google Glass Explorer program is as interesting as Google Glass. Never before has a company put the fate of a totally novel product in the hands of consumers. Google invited interested users to buy this completely beta device and essentially market it for them.
Recent anti-Glass legislation and social gaffes show this strategy has largely failed to the point that Google has started social campaigns to revive Glass’s image.