Misc

See Google Glass on eBay? Google’s terms say you shouldn’t buy it (even if you can afford to)

10

With Glass Explorers getting their Google Glass units in the mail starting this week you’re bound to see a unit or two find its way onto online marketplace eBay. One listing was found earlier with an asking price of £100,000, though it was promptly removed. Whoever posted it may not have removed it because they set the initial price too high — it may be because of the terms of sale tied to the product that have come to light.

According to Google’s terms, users are not allowed to resell, loan, transfer, or give their Glass unit to any other individual without Google’s authorization. Should a user get caught breaking that rule Google reserves the rights to permanently deactivate the device and refuse to support it and service it under warranty. That’s a pretty extreme condition to adhere to, though it’s not entirely surprising.

The Google Glass Explorers program isn’t your typical consumer launch. It’s a costly beta, of sorts, and Google’s intention was to give developers and enthusiasts a chance to own one to start “exploring” with it ahead of launch. It’s not exactly a prototype anymore, but it’s also not supposed to be in the hands of anyone but those who Google decided can have one. Thus, such after-market regulation isn’t as taboo as it might be for any other product.

I highly doubt these terms will hold up for the consumer retail launch later this year, but the possibility exists. We’ll be reaching out to Google for a statement on the clause and to see if they plan to stick with it after the general launch, but I wouldn’t let this ruin the excitement that comes along with ushering in the next era of wearable computing.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

Rumor: Motorola X Phone to come in over 20 different colors

Previous article

Followup to LG Optimus G hinted for Q3 release, stays with 5-inch display

Next article

You may also like

10 Comments

  1. but but its 50,000 dollars 0.o

  2. Awwww man.. *puts wallet away*

    #baller

    1. Well since a mofo ballin like that, how ’bout you swing one down here for a mofo birthday this Dec? LoL!!

  3. I’ll wait for the next gen of Google Glass to come out before buying one… Make Google iron some bugs out and have better hardware for the next gen.

    Plus, I can see how much of a douche people will look like as a result of wearing Google Glass. :)

    1. It think the douche factor gonna be pretty bad, lol.

    2. Iron out the bugs? I think this will be pretty solid off the bat. They have been testing this device for years already.

    3. it just a cam recorder, i doubt it will have many bugs.

      1. A cam recorder with Google and Android integration…. a lot of bugs could be present.

  4. Ahh. So Google’s just as bad as the big carrier’s. Like I said you gotta watch google to now
    So this also brings up the question of root & ROM’s for glass?

    1. Wait…what? I’m trying to see how you’ve drawn this connection…and failing miserably. Microsoft has done the same thing with Betas in years past, and got away with it because they own the intellectual property to the software. I’m not sure how this applies to Google, but I also fail to see how this is in any way similar to carriers. Carriers don’t care what you do with the phone, they care if you unlock capabilities and features they’d normally charge for (a la root). This seems to be the TOTAL opposite of Google, who want you to explore the device’s capabilities, but doesn’t want the device to disappear into the hands of an Apple (or similar) employee who will reverse engineer some of the tech. It will happen, and they know it, but they want to hold that off for as long as possible.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in Misc