After denying Huawei access to Android, Google is taking the Chinese company head-on with the unveiling of its next-gen Glass eyewear, the “Enterprise Edition 2”.
During the launch of the P30 Pro, Huawei declared it was planning to enter the smart glasses market in June or July of this year, in collaboration with Gentle Monster.
Huawei’s surprise announcement followed Apple, Amazon and Intel also developing smart glasses tech, with Apple’s version tipped to enter production this year.
Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 more directly competes with Mircosoft’s HoloLens 2 whose latest demonstration failed at the Build Conference.
Glass project lead Jay Kothari wrote that the division has moved on from X, Alphabet’s “moonshot” and experimental factory to Google in order to “meet the demand of the growing market for wearables.”
Glass Enterprise Edition was born out of Google’s original consumer prototypes which made the rounds in 2013 to a mixed response.
The consumer beta program was officially shut in 2015, and in January 2017 X announced the Enterprise Edition eyewear.
The Enterprise Edition 2 runs on Qualcomm’s headset-configured Snapdragon XR1 processor designed for AR and VR uses.
The eyewear also features a USB-C port for “faster charging”, however, Google did not share how much battery life users could expect.
The latest AR eyewear is “built on Android” and supports Android Enterprise Mobile Device Management making it easier for customers to integrate services and APIs which they already use.
Google also promises improved camera quality on the next-gen glasses.
The Enterprise Edition 2 is tipped to cost US$999, local pricing or availability information has not been released.
