Google buys smart glasses startup North
Courtesy: Focals by North
On Tuesday, Google announced that it acquired North, an 8-year-old, Amazon-backed company that makes smart holographic glasses. According to reports, the deal is estimated to be worth $180 million. Ontario-based startup North could help Google speed up the development of smart glasses for the mainstream market.
North will wind down its business and the team will join Google’s existing hub in Kitchener, Ontario, where North is based. Google didn’t share specifics about its plans for North’s technology, but Rick Osterloh — senior VP for devices and services at Google — said North’s technical expertise will “help as we continue to invest in our hardware efforts and ambient computing future.”
Courtesy: Focals by North
GOOGLE SEES THE FUTURE
Despite the high-profile collapse of Google’s own Google Glass smart glasses, the concept has started to make a comeback. Acquiring North fits with Google’s recent bid for a more significant share of the wearable tech market in general. Last winter, Google bought Fitbit as part of a plan to build a smartwatch product line. Smart glasses may be yet another frontier for competition. Google may be the outlet for North’s technology, giving it more of a chance to draw customers than it did as an independent company.
Courtesy: Focals by North
North launched Focals smart glasses in October 2018. The glasses allow users to reply to notifications with smart replies, check flight status, and add daily tasks. Focals' sales were minuscule and could sell about 1,000 units only. Last year, the company announced it was working on a next-generation Focals 2.0 smart glasses. The new iteration was said to be lighter and sleeker than the predecessor. They can deliver up to 10x bigger display than Focals smart glasses.
Now, North said that it will not ship its updated version of glasses, Focals 2.0, which were to hit the market this year after the company announced it would wind down production of its first-generation model.