Earlier this week, a first-person essay written by a Google Glass user revealed that the wearable piece of technology will get its own dedicated app store in 2014 – to coincide with a consumer release of the high-tech specs.
“Because there isn’t an app store for Glass, its capabilities were initially limited by the few applications preinstalled by Google — sending and receiving texts, taking and sending videos and pictures, getting directions and doing Google searches,” said the essay, published in The New York Times Magazine. “The company says an app store is coming next year, when Glass is available to the general public.”
MarketingLand independently confirmed Google’s plans for a Glass app store, but the Internet search giant declined to elaborate on further details. The store may be called the “Glass Boutique,” according to a Google Glass update in July.
Earlier this summer, the Web version of Google’s Play Store received a makeover. The more streamlined browser version was designed to look like the Play Store’s mobile app – and it also added Google Glass as a “supported device.”
Developers can create apps for Google Glass – called “Glassware” – but the current terms of service state that such apps must be offered to other users free of charge. MarketingLand added that such a policy “can’t last forever.”
The Verge also points out that a recent changelog for Glass revealed that the headset would support Android APKs (application packages) in addition to the web apps that are currently available.
“Google created a set of guidelines for designing applications, and by midsummer, private developers had produced a few offerings. A cooking application, for example, displays pictures to go with a recipe as you make it,” said the NYTimes Magazine.
Other Glass users have developed applications for a variety of situations, such as one that can display virtual to-do lists and another that displays PowerPoint presentation slides so that a presenter can focus more on his or her audience.
One developer is even working on a Space Invaders-like video game, where players can destroy enemies by physically looking around and “locking on” to them.
Google Glass will arrive next year, but Google has not speculated on an exact timeframe or price point. The current Glass headsets were sold to select individuals for $1500 – but a consumer version could cost as little as $300.