Google Glass has never been particularly cheap, in fact if there is any one word to describe it cheap would be the very last word someone should use. Even though it sports a high value price tag people have flocked to get their hands on a pair. At first there was a limited number of Glass available and the only way you could get one was if the Glass team sent you out an invite. Over time though the invites went out more and more and eventually they even allowed friends to send multiple invites themselves to people they personally knew, and just earlier this month they allowed anyone to buy a pair for a one day only. Yesterday we learned that according to an estimate done by Teardown.com, the complete cost to make a pair of Google’s special tech goggles was just shy of $80.
Google is denying that the cost is this low, and rightfully so as there could be a couple reasons why. Google could of course just be dismissing the low cost to manufacture as would make the high price item look even worse in the eyes of some consumers, however it is also entirely likely that the estimate cost of Google Glass is in accurate and that they still cost more to make than what we’ve heard. Google is claiming that the estimate given by Teardown is absolutely wrong, and we don’t blame them. Even if the components cost to manufacture a set of Google Glass was near spot on, there are still at least a few factors that weren’t taken into account that should be considered with the cost to make such a device. The cost of labor for one, as Google Glass units don’t just build themselves. They have to be assembled, and before that there are likely hours upon hours of software engineering that has to be done to make sure everything goes correctly and works as intended. The units have to be tested. There is also the chance that the $3 mark for the micro display used within Google Glass is way off, but there’s no way to know for sure at this point. All things considered, whatever the cost is of the Google Glass parts, other things also seem to hike up the price a bit and Google obviously wants to make sure that the people who buy Glass are willing to make such large investment, and part with that amount of cash for a piece of technology like this. They want passionate people who would gladly throw away $1,500 to be a part of the Glass Explorer experience, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Most likely when Glass is ready for the mass market, the price could very well come down.