Now Anyone Can Buy Google Glass

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 14, 6:34AM EDT

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Google Glass has to be one of the most widely followed consumer electronics product launches since the first iPhones. After months of waiting, anyone can buy it, if Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has the product in stock. Since demand almost certainly will outstrip supply for some time, the announcement could be a short-term disappointed for people who will have to “stand in line,” at least metaphorically.

In a blog post, the Google Glass team wrote:

Last week we told you we’d be trying out new ways to find Explorers. Well, we weren’t kidding. We learned a lot when we opened our site a few weeks ago, so we’ve decided to move to a more open beta. We’re still in the Explorer Program while we continue to improve our hardware and software, but starting today anyone in the US can buy the Glass Explorer Edition, as long as we have it on hand: google.com/glass

We’re ready to keep meeting new Explorers, and we can’t wait to hear all your experiences and feedback to continue to make Glass even better, ahead of our wider consumer release.

“Explorers” seem to be little more than people who would like to own the Google Glass device.

READ MORE: The Most Misleading Product Claims

Google sells Glass for $1,500. According to several media reports, the cost of materials used to build the products is about $80. However, the market for “wearables” is still being tested in terms of consumer demand. For a company Google’s size, Google Glass sales are not likely to affect its P&L much.

Ultimately, because of these P&L implications, Google Glass is not very important to the company. The search company has moved into and out of hardware businesses, including tablets and its Motorola handset debacle. If Google Glass is highly successful, it is more a sign of a lost opportunity for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung than a tremendous new revenue line for Google.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.