Finally, there’s a sign that Google really and truly wants to turn Glass into an actual business. The search giant has signed a deal with Luxottica, one of the world’s biggest eyewear companies, to develop and sell Glass-based eyewear.
It’s possible that you’ve never heard of Luxottica, but you know its brands. Luxottica, an Italian company, numbers among its many luxury and licensed brands Ray-Ban and Oakley — two natural partners for a tech-and-fashion forward project like this. Oakley, in fact, is already in the wearables market with its Airwave ski goggle with its heads-up display. (The brand has long had a line of sunglasses with built-in MP3 players.) Ray-Bans, of course, have been the sunglass embodiment of cool for decades.
Left unspoken in the press release is Luxottica’s access to distribution. It also owns Lenscrafters, Pearle Vision, and Sunglass Hut, as well as the optical departments at Sears and Target.
Details of the resulting products, including design, price and shipping date, were not discussed. Nor were financial terms and goals.
It feels unlikely that you’ll be able to stop in at Sears and pick up a set of Glass, but getting a Glass-enabled pair of Ray-Bans at Lenscrafters? Why not?