Google Glass to launch internationally at Google IO [Rumor]
Over the past 14 months, Google’s Glass Explorer program has gone from early developer access, to contest winners, to friend referrals, and recently even opening up the purchase of Glass directly from Google without the need for a special invite. Through all of these changes a common criteria existed: be at least 18 years old, have $1,500 readily available, and be a resident of the United States. Thankfully, Google plans to nix at least one of those requirements in the very near future making Glass even easier to obtain.
According to sources close to the matter, Google plans to expand the Glass Explorer program internationally, making the announcement at their upcoming Google I/O developer conference June 25 – 26, 2014. We’re told that Glass will launch in at least the UK, however we weren’t able to confirm any additional countries or regions. Chances are, other English speaking countries are included in the launch as well, such as Canada, Australia, etc.
Another likely, but unconfirmed Glass launch location is Japan. A previous teardown of the GlassVoice.apk file included with the Glass firmware revealed many telling bits of information such as Japanese Java Locale’s, and even Japanese based voice commands.
We weren’t able to confirm pricing for any of the upcoming international launch locations for Glass, but chances are you’ll have fork over your regions equivalent of $1,500 to join Google’s beta program. And if you’re in the UK, you’ll want to stay up to date on the latest driving legislation. Last summer the UK was looking into banning Glass while driving.
So, international users, are you ready to join the Glass Explorer program? Let us know in the comments.