Update at 11:04 a.m. Pacific: Updated with Glass’s official announcement of its departure from Google X.
Big changes in Google hardware: The first version of Google Glass is going away, and the whole project is leaving the Google X sandbox to become its own division, the team announced today.
Google Glass got its start at Google X — the company’s experimental division — but it’s now becoming its own division. Still headed by Ivy Ross, the team will report to Nest chief executive Tony Fadell, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
“As we look to the road ahead, we realize that we’ve outgrown the lab and so we’re officially ‘graduating’ from Google[x] to be our own team here at Google. We’re thrilled to be moving even more from concept to reality,” the team said in a Google+ announcement.
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Google will stop selling its current version of Glass (Glass Explorer Edition) to individuals on January 19, though it will still be available to companies and developers for professional applications.
Google first released Glass to select users in the spring of 2013, eventually opening up access more widely in 2014. It appointed Ivy Ross, previously at Art.com, to lead the project. Ross will still head the division, with strategic guidance and leadership from Fadell, the report says.
Fadell’s Nest, which Google acquired in 2014 for $3.2 billion, makes connected devices for the home, most notably its learning thermostat.
Google plans to release a new version of Glass in 2015 that will use Intel chips, according to recent reports.
We’ve reached out to Google and Nest, and will update if we hear more.
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