IDC PCWorld Sees Lemonade in Google Glass

January 18, 2015

I am not sure what the folks in Massachusetts are thinking. I read “Google Glass: Down but Not Out.” Reading the story was an interesting exercise in filling a small tumbler with not-so-hot lemonade.

Here’s the passage I noted:

True, Glass has struggled to find its place in the mainstream.

Now that’s a statement that puts Brin and X Labs in some context.

“Struggled.”

Then I highlighted in yellow:

But make no mistake: Glass isn’t going away—not without more of a fight. While it’s struggled to find support among consumers, some businesses have been highly receptive to the electronic eyewear, and the next iterations of Glass might suit them even better.

Chuck full of quotes, the write up points out some of the issues; for example, backlash, the economics, and wonderful phrase “glasshole.”

But what was not said may be more important. The big thinker on this project was the multi-named Babak Amir Parviz. Then there was the alleged interaction between one of Google’s founders and an employee. There was some discord, which is a pretty nice way of summing up some fast dancing in the interpersonal relationships department. Finally there has been the two step in reorganizing the Glass house.

What we have is a write up that ignores the impact of business and personal decisions on a product that warranted a business school type of analysis. That means looking at the company, the professionals involved, the market reaction, and the social implications of hard-to-detect Glass functions.

Like much of IDC’s work, including Dave Schubmehl’s sale of my research under his name on Amazon, the issue of covering a topic is almost more interesting than the high school lab experiments themselves. But who cares? In an age of content marketing and zoom-zoom analysis, there just isn’t time between Oscar antics, analysis, and making sales, is there?

A photo of a Glass fashion show featuring Mr. Brin and Ms. Rosenberg would have helped put the write up in a fashion context. Remarkable that Vanity Fair would have more substance than an IDC publication. Fascinating.

Fascinating. I assume that’s lemonade in the IDC mug.

Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2015

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