Google Glass One-Day Sale: How To Buy, Customer And Critic Reactions

Update 5:43 p.m. EDT: The San Jose Mercury News reported that an email from Google indicated that the company may extend the Google Glass sale past Tuesday, depending on demand. Google has so far refused to say how many people took advantage of the offer to purchase the smart glasses.

Update 4:06 p.m. EDT: While several media outlets have disputed whether anyone is actually spending the $1,500 for Google Glass, Google claimed that they are being sold. The Google Glass team reported that white, or "cotton," pairs of Google Glass are now out of stock. The remaining colors are still available, but Google repeated that it plans to stop selling the devices sometime tonight.

At 6 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) made Google Glass Explorer Edition, a test group of its futuristic smart glasses, available for purchase by the general public for the first time, but only for one day.

Google Glass Explorer Edition bundle, priced at $1,500, comes with a charger and cable, a mono earbud and a pouch. Users can choose from five different colors, and Google now throws in shades or frames for free.

Google instructed people to sign up for the Explorer program and wait for an opening, but users with a Google account have a more direct route to Google Glass. At the official webpage for Google Glass, Google added a new “Purchase Glass” button. This directs to a fairly traditional-looking order page where users can choose their color, frame or shades and simply “Add to Cart.”

After reviewing the order, users can pay with Google Wallet. The cost of shipping is already included in the $1,500, and Google said it will ship Google Glass in five to seven days.

It seems that the future is here, at least for the U.S. Google will not ship Google Glass anywhere outside of the U.S., nor will it ship to P.O. boxes. Google said that there is a limited supply on Google Glass available today but did not indicate when it would shut down the sale.

Just hours before the release, Google released an update to Google Glass that introduced Android 4.4 KitKat, improved battery life, and killed off the buggy and little-used video chat feature. Besides these changes, a Reddit user posted a handy list of Google Glass features for anyone interested in purchasing a pair.

The public sale of the device, even if just temporarily, commanded attention and “Google Glass” quickly became the most popular topic on the Web, according to Alexa Internet.

The reaction online was varied. Some enthusiasts seized the opportunity.

Others balked at the $1,500 pricetag, saying their money could be better spent elsewhere. A lot of the dissent stems from the problems that have plagued Google Glass since the beginning: the unstylish design and the lack of functionality.

At least one person, however, has not had a good experience with Google Glass. Kyle Russel told Business Insider how he took Google Glass to cover a protest in San Francisco’s Mission District and was assaulted for Google Glass.

On the same day that Google Glass became publicly available, Google received a patent for a contact lens enabled with camera technology.