Google Glass competitor Vuzix M100 now available for pre-order at $1,000
Google Glass competitors are starting to come to light as wearable technology becomes more popular. It seems the first one to beat Google Glass to the (mass) market is the Vuzix M100 smart glass, which has just become available for pre-order. It will be officially released this month, but you will have to pay $1,000 to get your hands on one.
As expected, smart glasses will not be affordable for a while, but the M100 might be a worthy product to consider. This smart glass is essentially an Android smartphone without the cellphone antenna. It runs Android on its own, sporting everything a smartphone features.
The Vuzix M100 comes packed with all the internals, including GPS, a gyroscope, a camera, touch sensors, a processor, RAM memory, bluetooth and all the other goodies. It’s essentially a mini tablet in the shape of a smart glass. In fact, the company’s description is that it looks exactly like a smartphone would if places 10-12 inches in front of your eyes.
We got to test this device at CES 2013 and have to say we are not impressed. Not because of the device, it actually looks like a rather sweet unit, but because Vuzix was not able to keep its promises. First and foremost: the device was supposed to cost $500 upon release. To make matters a bit worse, release date was scheduled for last summer. Not only were they late, but they doubled the retail price!
It could still be a good purchase if you are willing to try these out. It also connects to your smartphone so it won’t be a completely stand-alone product. Though it will probably do more (on its own) than Google Glass does.
Is it better than Google Glass, though? In some ways it is, but Google Glass will probably take off before the Vuzix M100. Glass will more than likely have more support and cost less (upon release). We are still not sure, though, so it’s a gamble.
What do you think? Are you convinced with this $1000 smart glass? Will you wait for Google Glass instead? Maybe you just don’t care much for wearable technology. Either way, let us know what you think in the comments!