It seems Motorola could possibly be involved in the production of Googles current pet project – Google Glass – at least according to an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal last week.
During the last week’s launch of the Moto X in the US, Dennis Woodside, CEO of of Motorola Mobility, stated that Motorola is already lending a helping hand in many internal Google hardware projects. Stating that in terms of their help extending to Google Glass :
supply chain head Mark Randall is helping Google think through manufacturing issues for Google Glass and one day might handle production outright.
While this is good for Motorola, there are few indicators for when the actual manufacturing for Glass will begin for the mass market, at this stage Google Glass Explorer units are being built in Santa Clara California by Hon Hai known better by the name FoxConn. A move towards mass production of Glass has been hinted at by Google in their FAQ which says :
Our goal is to make Glass available to a wider group of Explorers later this year, with even broader availability next year
As Google has just extended the Glass Explorer program to ‘friends’ of current Glass Explorers the next step would be moving to broader availability.
In some ways this does make sense for Motorola to take over production and push out Glass adoption further. Glass being a slightly grey area in the Android space, means that Google wouldn’t step on any other competitors toes (at the moment) who have been worried by the search giants purchase of the hardware manufacturer.
Whether Google will solely place production in the hands of Motorola, is yet to be announced, but it makes sense that they would do so and we will be keeping an eye out for any further plans.
Does it make sense for Motorola to take over production of Glass once the device is ready for mass production?
With how the hype to reality was handled for the launch of the MotoX, Googorola have clearly shown that they don’t do global. Would we like to see Googorola do Glass and make it a US exclusive flagship as well?
To avoid being a failure, google glass needs to be cheap. There’s no high value/high volume use case, so somewhere around $200 cheap. Motorola have proved they can’t do cheap.
This is not a marriage made in heaven.