After Google stopped selling its wearable Glass device in January this year, many people speculated that the controversial gadget was on its way out for good. However, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said that the technology behind Glass is too important to throw away, and that the program has been put under the control of Nest's Tony Fadell to "make it ready for users" in the future.

Glass is a "big and very fundamental platform for Google."

"We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true," Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal. "Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it." Schmidt added that Glass remains a "big and very fundamental platform for Google," and that just like the company's self-driving cars, the wearable device is a work in progress that will take years to come to fruition. "[It's] like saying the self-driving car is a disappointment because it’s not driving me around now," said Schmidt.

Reports last December suggested that Google might be planning to launch a new, cheaper version of Glass this year. Intel was said to be supplying the innards, with the updated model also reportedly offering a refreshed design and longer battery life. Looking at this list of rumored fixes, it's clear that Google has a lot of work to do to make Glass a viable product. However, Schmidt's comments suggest the company is nothing if not committed. We haven't seen the end of Glass.

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