Google co-founder and frequent spokesperson Sergey Brin has publically moved up the release date of the highly anticipated Google Glass.
Although rumors and speculation about the actual release of the product have been bandied about the Web since Project Glass was first announced in April 2012, consumers will be able to get their hands on the thing in the next holiday season.
Google Glass, which will be available for $1,500, will allow the user to interface with "augmented reality-enhanced glasses [that] let you record video, check your calendar, get weather updates and see messages from your friends," according to Mashable's concision of Google's press release.
The last update on the Google Glass release date was for 2014, but has now been bumped up slightly, as reported by to Seeking Alpha.
At Wednesday, Feb. 27's TED 2013 conference, Brin wowed yet another audience with a demonstration of the Google Glass before proclaiming that the product would, yes, be available for the 2013 holidays as opposed to being released in early 2014.
Along with the Google Glass being available to consumers looking for the perfect Christmahanakwanzaa present, the upping of the product's release date presents a new challenge for Google's parts suppliers. Overcoming the earlier deadline, however, isn't necessarily a bad thing.
""[C]omponent suppliers ... have been waiting for a killer app to take their industry by storm," says Seeking Alpha.
Seeking Alpha suggests that Google component supplier Himax will be the first vendor to "benefit" from the Google Glass' bumped-up release date.
"Based on evidence gathered by me and my team at Pipeline Data, we strongly believe that Himax will be GOOG's primary provider of microdisplays, the key component that allows users to view computer-generated data on their glasses," says Seeking Alpha writer Mark Gomes.
HIMX's latest earnings call included a statement that "[a]lso adding to growth were our pilot shipments of LCOS microdisplays for the new and exciting head-mounted display application."
"While careful not to acknowledge any specific customer dealings," Seeking Alpha continues in its prediction HIMX is working on the Google Glass, "Himax was quick to point out it is the only vendor that has publicly announced having such devices available for such head-mounted displays."
Seeking Alpha also believes that the timing of HIMX's shipping of 20,000 chips in Q4 makes a lot more sense, considering Google Glass' upcoming release.
"Despite the plethora of evidence, HIMX has resisted multiple attempts to reveal its customer for the 'new and exciting head-mounted display application,' doubtless due to an NDA," says Seeking Alpha. "However, Google Glass is clearly the most exciting display application on the horizon."
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(Edited by Lois Heyman)
