Next Google Glass Version on the Way?

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The Google-Luxottica partnership in the Glass wearable device is still going ahead, and as such "a new version of Google Glass is in the works and will be out soon," the Wall Street Journal reports.

Google Glass“In Google, there are some second thoughts on how to interpret version 3 [of Glass],” Luxottica CEO Massimo Vian told shareholders at at the company's general meeting. “What you saw was version 1. We’re now working on version 2, which is in preparation.”

In its turn Google simply says “the [Glass] team is heads down building the future of the product.”

In January 2015 Google held a major Glass shakeup-- sales of the first version of Glass were stopped and the team behind it was moved from the secretive Google X research lab to a standalone unit reporting to Nest boss Tony Fadell. The move was interpreted by some as the Google putting the wearable in the Silicon Valley equivalent of warm (if not cold) storage.

Google formed a "strategic partnership" with Luxottica back in May 2014. Luxottica owns two of the most famous eyewear brands around, Ray-Ban and Oakley, and was to have a team “design, develop and distribute a new breed of eyewear for Glass.” Whether it will manage to eliminate the stigma surrounding the device-- whose wearers are colloquially referred to as "Glassholes"-- remains to be seen.

Go Italian Eyewear Maker Luxottica Working on New Version of Google Glass, CEO Says (WSJ)