Google To Halt Sales Of Glass As iPod Creator Tony Fadell Takes Over

Public sales of Google Glass will end on Jan. 19, Google announced Thursday. The company is "graduating" Glass out of its Google X innovation lab and making it its own team that will be overseen by Tony Fadell, an expert on hardware who led the creation of both the Nest smart thermostat and Apple's iPod.

Google opened up sales of its smartglasses to the general public last year, selling an early "Explorer Edition" of the gadget for $1,500, but the device failed to catch on due to its steep price tag and privacy concerns. The Mountain View, California-based tech giant is hoping Fadell can figure out how best to position Glass for success with the general public.

Glass will continue to be led by Ivy Ross, whom Google brought on early last year, but now she will be reporting to Fadell, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fadell will oversee the direction of both Glass and Nest, his smarthome startup that Google acquired last year for $3.2 billion.

Under these changes, the development of Glass will no longer be a public matter. Google said it is working on future versions of the device, but we will likely not see it again until it is a finished, consumer-ready product.