Google Glass is the Most Interesting Gadget of the Past 10 Years
When the UPS delivery guy rang my door bell earlier this week, I was so excited. Why you ask? Because he was delivering my Google Glass. Now for those who know me, it’s definitely not unusual for me to get excited because a new gadget is arriving on my doorstep, but this time it was a little different. It was different because I had a strong feeling Google Glass would be the most interesting gadget I’ve owned in the past 10 years — and it is.
Before I go on, I should probably define what I mean when I say “most interesting.” When I say it is the most interesting gadget, to me, that means it excites, makes people curious, that it has huge implications and could affect other unrelated industries.
Earlier I tweeted that Google Glass is the most interesting product Google has ever built. And while I still stand by the that statement, I’d like to take it one step further. Google Glass is definitely the most interesting product created in the past decade.
Google Glass is probably the most interesting product Google has ever created.
— Jeff Weisbein (@jeffweisbein) November 17, 2013
I’d say the most interesting product prior to Google Glass was Apple’s iPod, which was first released in 2001. What made the iPod so interesting? It proposed a radically different way to listen to music on the go and also a new way to purchase music with the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. Notice how I didn’t say the iPhone — there’s a reason for that, the iPhone is certainly a revolutionary device and at the time of its release in 2007 was a huge evolution from previous smartphones, but it isn’t as interesting as the iPod.
Apple succeeded with its proposed change [the iPod] and in the process fundamentally changed the way we listened to music by making it so we could hold our entire music library in our pocket. CDs became a thing of the past and the entire music industry changed forever.
Now, back to Google Glass.
Google Glass is interesting because it can change the way we think about technology, it can turn the idea of technology from something we can hold in our hands and interact with from “afar” to something that can be worn on your person and interacted with in a much more intimate way. Just think about that and what that means not only for the future of technology but also for the future of fashion. I can’t tell you with absolute certainty that Google Glass will succeed (though high school students seem to think it’s awesome — listen to the audio clip) in the way the iPod did, but if it does, the fashion industry may be in for quite a ride.
Google Glass has potential “iPod-esq” implications on the future of technology, and could also totally change a completely unrelated industry. These types of products don’t come along very often and that’s why I think Google Glass is the most interesting gadget of the last 10 years.