Google Glass to be made in California, report says
Glass, Google’s highly anticipated smart device, will reportedly be manufactured in Santa Clara, Calif.
The Financial Times on Wednesday reported that the “futuristic digital eyewear” will be put together at a U.S. facility run by Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer best known for assembling iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices. The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
In recent years, U.S. tech companies have been turning to Asia to assemble their hardware, but President Obama has been pushing for them to reconsider manufacturing their devices in the U.S. Late last year, Apple was the first major U.S. company to take the proposition seriously when it announced that it would start building one line of its Mac computers in the U.S. starting in 2013.
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Google isn’t commenting on the story, so the report could end up being wrong. But if Google does indeed decide to manufacture Glass in California, it will be a big boost for the return of U.S. electronics manufacturing.
Glass is one of the most high-profile pieces of upcoming tech as companies begin looking to wearable devices as the next battleground market after smartphones and tablets.
The Silicon Valley introduced Glass in a YouTube video last year, and in February, Google held a contest to select about 8,000 people in the U.S. who would be invited to purchase an early version of the device. Google began contacting winners Tuesday and plans to contact all the winners over the next few days.
At a later point in time, the winners will be able to attend events in either San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York to purchase the early version of Glass for $1,500. Google has not said when those events will take place. The company has made it clear it hopes to release Glass to the general public before the end of the year.
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