Visionary CIOs See Uses for Google Glass - Wall Street Journal

Although Apollo Group Inc. , said he would like a Glass application to help IT engineers diagnose and repair faulty networking equipment. "If I could have an application that puts a little green arrow [over a faulty wire] that says 'disconnect me', I would pay for that tomorrow," Mr. Sajor said. He said this could reduce the time spent diagnosing the problem and the probability of an engineer manipulating the wrong wire. Glass could also help engineers more efficiently detect problems on machine shop floors. Stuart Birrell, CIO of motorsports technology outfit McLaren Group Ltd., said he could imagine engineers using Glass to check quality and diagnose problems as they install electronic control systems into cars. He has no current plans to build apps for Glass, but he said, "I do see things in the future going down that route." Google declined to say if it is building Glass applications with CIOs. But Google spokesperson Chris Dale said in an email to CIO Journal: "Ultimately, we believe Glass will be a powerful and compelling device for enterprises large and small." Glass, which Google expects to sell to consumers by the end of 2013, faces some obstacles. It raises privacy implications because the device allows users to record audio and video without permission. Also, commands spoken into Glass devices could prove noisy, breaching etiquette in social situations. Cost poses another challenge. To sell Glass to the masses, Google must make the device more affordable than its current $1,500 price tag. Then there is the usability factor. Mr. Cosset said there is no guarantee people who don't already rely on glasses to see better will be comfortable wearing Glass, which could hurt adoption. And if consumers don't buy the device, it won't make sense for CIOs to invest the time and resources to build application ecosystems to support them. He said the key challenge is broad applicability into users' lives. "If you only have 10,000 people in the U.S. using Google Glass, it's probably not going to be a relevant channel," he said. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHHLQ32BsY0WhV4nllY4BDlDPWsmg&url=http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-228554/

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