Some personnel changes that have just come to light among executives involved with Google Glass make it look like Google means to turn its widely heralded experiment into an actual product sooner rather than later.
Adrian Wong, a lead electrical engineer on the project, has left to join visor company Oculus, his LinkedIn profile says. Wong’s profile lists two projects at Google: Glass Explorer Edition and Glass Consumer Edition. It’s not unusual for lead techs to move to a new position once “hard problems” are solved at the old job.
Coming into Google to head the Glass division is Ivy Ross, most recently the chief marketing officer at Art.com. Ross, who joined Google last month (again, according to LinkedIn), has a long and illustrious resume; she was EVP of Marketing for the Gap, chief creative officer for The Disney Store, and a very long marketing title for Mattel that would make one believe that she was in charge of marketing Barbie. Certainly not a tech background, but rich in brand image for a market somewhere between luxury and mass.
Coupled with a recent manufacturing and distribution deal with Luxottica and a sudden raft of Glass application stories popping up in the media , these executive changes look like Google may finally be getting ready to come to market.