Heads Up! This Was Google?s Apple Moment

It looked like the X Games, but it was the most significant product launch of the decade so far. For the first time, Google did what Apple has done thrice, with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Granted, Apple announces products that ship immediately, while Google merely allowed a few thousand I/O attendees to pre-order a beta version that wouldn't ship until next year--but don't let the mechanics distract you from the heart of the matter. Google Glass isn't just a new product, it's a whole new product category, and it has every chance of being every bit as revolutionary as Apple's Big Three. Of course, like every revolution, it brought the nattering nabobs of negativity out in force. "We struggle to imagine Google Glasses reconciled with normal life," carps Gizmodo. That line's going to sound as embarrassingly tone-deaf in five years as these hilarious quotes from iPhone naysayers do today. Wearable computing, in one form or another, is the future. How extraordinary is it going to be? Some people suggest it could actually save Research In Motion. Now that's amazing. But a company that took most of a year to build an email app for the PlayBook isn't going to lead the way. This category is so new that Google's fail-fast, permanent-beta, make-it-up-as-you-go ethos is really the only viable direction. And we're only in its infancy; has anyone else noticed that those big thick glasses look a lot like Neurosky's brainwave sensors? Thought-controlled heads-up displays, anyone? Do I sound excited? Well, sure, yeah, I am--but I'm also kind of terrified.

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