Google in Talks with VSP Global to Create New Glass Designs With Prescription LEnses

Google seems to be really serious about Glass, as they’ve just released version 2.0 and a GDK sneak peek. Now, according to WSJ, they’re in talks with VSP Global, a big frame and lens producer, in order to create new designs for the device, provide it with prescription lenses and distribute it in their locations around the US.

VSP Global has 60 million customers who are enrolled in their workplace or individual vision plans, including Google’s employees. They also have a network of 30,000 eye doctors and this partnership could boost Google Glass’ sales by offering it to people who wear prescription glasses.

At the moment, Google Glass comes without lenses and doesn’t support them very well. There have been some who managed to hack the device in order to add lenses for it, but this isn’t the best case scenario for a regular customer. So we’re pretty sure that Google is going to establish a partnership with VSP Global or a similar company in order to ship their product with prescription lenses for those who need them. There are now over 110 million americans who wear glasses, so this is going to be a huge market for Google Glass.

We also except the final design to be more friendly, as it looks pretty geeky now, with the bulky device attached to the frames. We also believe this is one of the reasons why Google hasn’t released Glass yet, as they probably still have to tweak their design or find a partner to build it for them.

While the WSJ article states that this partnership isn’t established yet, discussions being in early stages, we believe it could become real, as the two companies might need each other.

The official release date is getting closer, as we expect Google to release Glass in Q1 2014, meaning we might be just a few months away. Hopefully they will manage to find a reliable partner until then and create a good design for the product that will appeal potential customers. For the moment, Google Glass is considered a tech product for aficionados, but it could replace regular glasses in the future.