14 DAY TRIAL // Google Glass costs the Internet giant about $80 (€57.7) for the hardware, much less than the estimated $200 (€144.2) from last year.
The wearable tech device is currently being sold for $1,500 (€1081.55), although only a select few have the chance to join the Explorer program, a group that’s mostly formed by developers.
It has been quite clear for everyone that’s ever seen the device in person, or even to those who have looked at detailed photos, that the Glass couldn’t possibly cost that much to create. Sure, the gadget is quite nice and doesn’t give the impression of “cheap” when handling it, but the $1,500 (€1,081.55) price tag is there more to make sure that not everyone will get their hands on the device until the mainstream launch.
The $1,500 (€1081.55) price also makes Google Glass seem like an exclusive luxury item, which has somehow backfired against the company, which hopes to get the entire world enamored with the gadget.
The consumer version of Glass is supposed to launch sometime this year, but an exact timeline hasn’t been provided. Considering everything, the device should be around $300 - $350 (€216 – €252) for regular users to become interested in it, perhaps a bit more if more improvements are made to the hardware and the software is flawless by the time of the launch.
Even so, the teardown of the device indicates that the Glass hardware costs a mere $80 (€57.7). The site that made the evaluation admits that these are rough estimates and the price could be a bit higher, but the difference can’t possibly be that big.
While the numbers could indeed change after a more thorough review, as they did since last year, the estimates offer an idea about how much Google is paying for their Glass devices. Besides this, there are a million other things that Google has to take into account, such as the workers, shipping, licenses and so on.
So why such a high price? Well, Google has invested quite a bit in the development of the device over the past two years, so those hundreds of millions of dollars have to be compensated from somewhere and it’s only natural. After all, not even the expensive Apple devices cost that much to produce.
Google has, of course, denied the cost estimates, deeming the numbers “absolutely wrong.” The company hasn’t revealed the true numbers and no one actually expects it to.