WHY GOOGLE GLASSES FAILED?
ARPIT GUPTA – 22GSOB2011062
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF
Dr. Ravikant Sharma
MBA – DUAL SPECIALISATION
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
GALGOTIAS UNIVERSITY
GREATER NOIDA
Abstract
In this research paper we are basically trying to find out why Google Glasses failed as a product in the market. Google Glasses was launched back in 2012 as a product that created a lot of buzz in the market as “Wearable Smart Glasses”. But it never managed to effectively capitalise on the hype that surrounded the product and failed in capturing the market share and did not turn out as a money-making product. On the contrary, Google lost $895 million and incurred heavy losses and ultimately had to give up on the product. It failed to captivate the imagination of the people and people were not really interested in the product.
When we dig deeper into the problem, we found several loopholes and flaws in the product, and in the basic business idea on the fundamental level. First of all, the designers of the idea and the product lacked the clarity as to whether the glasses would be considered as a fashionable device or just stand out as a utilitarian product. The problem was also with the price of the product, as this was so expensive that only the rich could afford and hence inaccessible to the masses and a limited target market. The people were also concerned with the privacy aspect as the current generation is quite conscious about their data being recorded and people did not really like this aspect of Google Glasses. People were even concerned with the safety of this product.
People were not really great fans of the design of the glasses and generally regarded the product as uncool. Moreover, the grim problem of low battery life on the glasses was another major flaw. Nobody likes it, if they have to charge their product every now and then, it really drops the satisfaction level, and this happened with Google Glasses as well. The design of the glasses was unappealing and the glasses regularly faced heating and language issues.
So overall these were the factors we found out that contributed in the product ending up as a huge failure in the market, despite the fact that it had a huge brand value as the likes of Google backing it up.
