Google Glass Enterprise Edition Officially Unveiled, Now Available to More Firms

Google Glass 2.0 or Google Glass Enterprise Edition has been tipped for a while, and on Tuesday, the search giant finally made the wearables official. Called Google Glass Enterprise Edition, the new glasses have seen improvements to the design and hardware to make them more lightweight and comfortable for long term wear. They also feature better battery life and more power.

The Mountain View giant made the announcement over on the website of X, Google's moonshot factory. Jay Kothari, Product Lead for Glass, said the company has been working on the new and improved Google Glass Enterprise Edition for the past two years, in which time it has been available to a small number of enterprises in a limited programme. These firms include AGCO, DHL, GE, Samsung, Sutter Health, and Volkswagen.

Now, the Google Glass team has returned to X, and the Google Glass Enterprise Edition is available to more enterprises through the company's network of expert partners. To recall, the first Google Glass was unveiled way back in 2012 and then made available in a limited programme, before being made available to everyone in the US in 2014. It was finally discontinued for consumers in 2015. Since then, rumours of a new version of Google Glass have been rife. Now Google admits it has been testing the new edition for the past two years, making past reports more credible.

Detailing the use cases for Google Glass Enterprise Edition, and hinting at the work that went into developing it, Kothari writes, "Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services, and healthcare find it useful to consult a wearable device for information and other resources while their hands are busy. That's why we've spent the last two years working closely with a network of more than 30 expert partners to build customised software and business solutions for Glass for people in these fields."

Kothari also revealed that the Google Glass team is working with the Google Cloud team and other partners to help enterprises across sectors make best use of the wearable.