While attempting to recuperate from its abysmal sales performance concerning its smartphones and TVs, Japanese tech firm Sony will be releasing its smart glasses despite the fact that Google's own eye wearable was dismissed as a colossal failure. The augmented reality wearables have been dubbed the "SmartEyeglass," and they comprise of a pair of glasses that possess an extremely large form factor.
Sony has not yet released the product worldwide but interested consumers can pre-order the SmartEyeglass who are currently residing in the regions of Germany and UK. The pre-order phase will strictly be for monitoring purposes as the tech company wants to see whether or not the wearable's popularity grows or dwindles before targeting other regions.
According to Extreme Tech, the total battery life of the earpiece wearable will last approximately two and a half hours of continuous use. According to the website, Sony has stamped an exorbitant price tag of £620 (which converts to $952) which is far less compared to the retail price of the Google's now discontinued product.
Sony is not the only company looking to turn augmented reality in to a lucrative venture. Tech giant Microsoft, which is gearing up to release its 'unified interface' operating system, Windows 10, had also announced HoloLens, which are augmented reality glasses that possess holographic technology. While virtual reality headsets are currently being tested for gaming purposes, game developing and distribution company Valve is testing out augmented reality goggles which are termed as "CastAR."
Sony's latest strategy change involves the company focusing more on its next generation console and camera sensors rather than its smartphone and TV division, which have been not doing well in terms of sales performance. While the company has only given shreds of information that its smartphone and TV business might be sold or given to a partner to handle the responsibility, it will take a while for Sony's to properly set up a fully functional augmented reality wearable market.
