Samsung Is Going To Copy Google Glass And Launch It In September
It sounds like Gear Glass will be nearly identical in form to Google Glass, if a new report from Business Korea first spotted by Sam Mobile turns out to be true.
There will be a small prism slightly above one eye for viewing content and an earpiece for listening.
Gear Glass is likely to run on the Tizen operating system, an open-source software that Samsung has played a large role in developing. Most wearable displays on the market, including Google Glass and Epson's Moverio BT-200s, run on Android.
A Samsung associate reportedly said the following to Business Korea:
We rolled out the smartwatch first, and have secured a considerable amount of smart glass-related technology and patents. Following the roll out of our smart watch Galaxy Gear in September last year, we are slated to introduce our smart glass Gear Glass this September.
The new report echos previous rumors that have been circulating for months. In October, Russian tech blogger Eldar Murtazin tweeted that Samsung would release its own Google Glass competitor called Gear Glass that could launch this year in April or May.
But now it looks like Samsung will wait to introduce Gear Glass at IFA, the big tech conference in Berlin that starts September 5.
Samsung has also filed patents for wearable display technology in both Korea and the United States.
Since Google unveiled Glass in 2012, several competitors have announced wearable displays of their own. A few of these companies, such as Vuzix, have been making wearable displays long before Glass had been revealed, but the genre in general has yet to gain traction in the mainstream consumer market.
Google Glass is still in its early stages. This week, Google started selling it to the public, but it still costs $1,500. It will likely be a few more years before Google is ready to launch a consumer version of Glass.