Will it be adopted?
Google Project Glasses
Description
“
We think technology should work for you – to be there when you need it and get
out of your way when you don’t”(http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/04/google-project-glas/).
Google project glasses are simply a pair of design glasses with a lot of
applications designed to make your life more fun and easy. The glasses are
constructed of a solid metal band that runs over your eyebrows and small heads–up
display that is mounted on the right side. The idea behind the glasses is to
provide the users with desirable information such as transit times and weather
conditions, right in front of their eyes – whenever and wherever they need
it. Further applications include the
ability to take pictures and send pictures by using your voice. If you want to send a message the voice
command gives you the possibility to instruct the glasses to write and send
messages.The glasses also provide 3G and 4G, which makes it simple to display
the locations of nearby friends, as well as the location of a great restaurant
while visiting for example Hong Kong. If you want to place the order in
Mandarin while visiting the Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, the glasses will
tell you how to.
Analysis:
I
will base my analysis on Rogers five perceived characteristics of an
innovation, namely the relative advantage, compatibility, trialability,
observability and complexity. Perceived high degrees of the first four
characteristics and a low degree of the fifth characteristic, will according to
his model result in a high adoption rate of the innovation.
Perceived target group for the innovation: Technologically adapt and adventurous people,
probably first and foremost young adults that constantly are searching for new,
cool gadgets to use in their everyday lives. Since I consider myself as part of
the target group, I will base the analysis on my perceived characteristics of
the product.
1: Relative Advantage
From
my point of view I find technology that makes “life” easier strongly appealing,
doesn’t everyone? How many times have you experienced something you really
ought photographed, but when the camera/smartphone is ready the moment is gone?
I experience that all the time. While driving yesterday I spot pelicans flying
in the beautiful light of the sunset. My stupid smartphone wouldn’t start the
camera applications and I failed to capture it. Being able to say, “take a
picture” with the result of the picture actually being taken would be highly
appreciated. With that being said, this may require that you wear your glasses
at all times which is not necessarily that tempting unless they look really
cool.
The
message and photo applications are not new phenomena. The experience some of us
gained by dealing with IPhone “Siri” tells me that this is not as simple as
Google claims it to be. This is bound to lead to complications. However, short
texts shouldn’t be a problem, and it is a fun thing to be able to do with your
glasses. Also the technology will most likely develop as the adoption rate
increases resulting in the usability being easier.
Being
able to get GPS directions in front of your eyes seems more convenient than
using the phone. However, a relative disadvantage may be that it could make it
more complicated to walk the distance, as you at all times have the map in
front of your eyes.
Economic factors and rate of adoption.
The
Google glasses are expected to cost around $750, which is a relatively expensive
prize to pay for a product that provides you with similar applications already
available in your smartphone. It is however often the case that as the early
adopters have adopted the new technology the price will decrease and promote
further adoption by more price sensitive individuals. I am sure this will be
the case for this product as well, and that this price reduction will lead to a
higher adoption rate as time goes.
Status aspects of innovations
I
believe that a product as this will have a considerable degree of social prestige
and therefore although the price is high, I predict a relatively high rate of
early adopters. Also, status seeking is often the main reason for imitating the
innovation behaviour of others. I predict that this will speed up the adoption
rate.
Perceived grade of relative advantages: Relatively high for the primary target group
Compatibility
The
Google glasses follow as a natural extension of the constant evolution in
mobile and digital technologies. The busy life we live makes us have an
ever-increasing need to save time, make life easier, do things faster and more
flexible. There will surely be some purists that still prefer navigating with
paper maps and photographing with hand held cameras. These are however not the
primary target group for this innovation and I believe that sooner or later
they will either way have to change their belief systems and adopt newer
digital and portable solutions. Also most people in the target group have
already past experiences with digital, mobile devices and this new product is
therefore only a further step and a “simplifying solution” that is compatible
with the target group’s experiences and needs.
Perceived grade of compatibility: High among the
primary target group
Complexity
If
you know how to use a smartphone/camera/recorder I guess you will learn how to
use the Google project glasses relatively easily. Google claims that it is
fairly easy to use, and so it seems. If you know how to talk you will know how
to control the applications on the glasses, as everything is functioned trough
voice command.
Perceived grade of complexity: Relatively low for the primary
target group
Trialability
Google
write on the website that they are looking for “bold, creative individuals” who would
like to join them and be a part of shaping the future of the Glass. In other
words, they want to include “ordinary” people in the development of the
project. They get to try out the glasses and later give a review of he product
for other potential customers to see. In this way people can give meaning to
the innovation by looking at the review of the “bold, creative individuals” who
tried it out for them. This gives the product more creditability, reduces
uncertainty for the potential adopters and would also contribute to generate a
word of mouth effect that could help the product adapt more rapidly
Perceived grade of trialability: High
for the primary target group
Observability
This
is a technological innovation and it therefore consists of both hardware and a
software component in addition to the potential resulting products of using the
Glasses.
1.Hardware.
The Google Project does not exactly look like
ordinary glasses, but I am afraid that people wouldn’t be able to tell the
difference. I find the degree of observabilty low, as it is difficult for
people to know what the product is by seeing someone on the street wearing
them.
2. Software:
An
innovation in which the software aspects is dominant is less immediate
observable and is therefore said to have a relatively slower rate of adoption.
However, we share everything online these days: photos, experiences, status,
videos etc. The Social Medias Instagram and Twitter make it easy to share and
to look up specific products by simply searching on different hash tags. I am
sure that Google will take advantage of this technology and that it will find a
way to make its product visible through for example a hash tag when sharing the
results of the glasses. The word of mouth effect is viral on Social Medias and
since the results of these glasses have a huge potential for sharing in such Medias,
and the predicted status aspect of the innovation is high I believe the product
will be very observable.
Perceived grade of observability: High rate among the
primary target group
Conclusion
To
summarize my analysis I predicted a relatively high degree of relative
advantages, high degree of compatibility, relatively low degree of complexity,
high degree of trialability and a high degree of observability among the
primary target group.
Based
on the analysis of the perceived characteristics of the Google Project Glasses
I therefore predict that the product will be adopted and I am looking forward
to the launch!
References
Everett
M. Rogers: Diffusion of innovations, chapter 6
By: Lisa Ulrikke Johansen Vaage
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