Google Glass has been one the most highly anticipated products for several years now, and as we inch further into 2013, it’s slowly becoming a reality. Google employees have been seen wearing the glasses several times out in public, and the company has even held several hack-a-thons for them hoping to encourage developers to produce apps for the platform.
On Tuesday evening, a fake auction for Google Glass went up on the popular e-commerce site eBay. The seller, who calls himself bla7kcat, claimed that he was one of the few testers of the product and had early access to it. Almost instantly, people started to place bids on the glasses, and the price quickly rose to $15,900. That’s more than ten times what Google is selling the developer units for, though they’re obviously only available to developers, not the general public. eBay removed the listing within an hour of its posting, claiming it was a violation of its presale policy.
The fact that someone was willing to pay nearly $16,000 for an unreleased, buggy product, shows just how excited people are for Google Glass. The product allows for people to quickly and easily perform tasks such as taking pictures, messaging friends, recording video, and social networking without a seperate device all with their glasses.
The phony listing, which The Atlantic Wire was able to get a hold of, consisted of the following:
“i am selling a pair of Google Glasses (Project Glass glasses). I’ve been selected as an early adapter for Google’s upcoming release. you are buying a brand new unopened pair of Google’s Project Glass glasses. i will be personally attending and picking up my pair in either Los Angeles, or New York at Google’s Project Glass launch event, which will take place some time after Feburary 27th. as for what colors will actually be available, will vary, if i am offered a choice, I will choose the color of your choice (see listing picture for variants). my cost to buy my glasses is $1,500 (USD), so obviously thats where ive started the auction at. Project Glass will be shipped with Insurance at my expence, and signature upon delivery, so please use an address you can accept delivery in person.”
Google announced earlier this month that it will make a consumer version of Project Glass available to the public by year’s end. It’s unclear how much they will cost and what specific tasks they will be capable of performing. Currently, the only people using are select developers, Google executives, and a small group of testers.
Are you excited to use Google Glass? Would you be willing to spend more than $15,000 for product? Let us know down in the comments!