Web Browsing On Glass On The Rise

Almost a year has passed since the release of the Glass Explorer Edition and it’s time to look back and see how the device was used so far and what type of content users prefer. Thanks to Adobe, who posted on Tuesday a report showing insights on how Glass content is consumed, we can draw some conclusions.

From their report we know that most of the content searched refers to media, news and sports and only 3 percent of the searches were made on retail sites. Since August 2013 until December same year, general web browsing grew with 735 percent, while media and entertainment sites number of entries grew with nearly 54 percents in the same period. We would say that the growth is more than significant.

Another fact brought to us by Adobe’s director of product management, Ashley Still, is that more than 50 percents of Glass users are man and this is why sports content searches were so high in the report. However, this info could be irrelevant as there are more men interested in technology than women and it was expected for men to be more receptive to such a device than women.

A good insight comes from Rob Garner, the Chief Strategy Officer at Advice Interactive Group, who is also a Glass Explorer, said that he finds CNN videos and the breaking news section from The New York Times to be two of the most useful content he accessed on Glass. Google Now is sending only the most important notifications so that it won’t clog your device, while the breaking news from NYT are unobtrusive and easy to follow, as only the breaking titles are pushed on Glass.

Even though Garner isn’t sure how Glass will do in the near future and how successful it will be, he finds that being able to filter the notifications you receive without checking your phone is a benefit as well as having them pushed directly to that mini-display from above your eye.

The sales forecasts presented for wearable devices look favorable, though. Shane Walker, an IHS analyst foresees a growth in the number of shipments from 100 million last year, to 220 million shipments by 2018.

Another industry Glass seems to have reached is the banking industry, as past Tuesday, one of New Zealand’s Westpac banks stated that they are getting ready to test a Cash Tank app during March and integrate iBeacon tech from Apple in its systems so that customers would be able to access their accounts, make transfers or receive alerts, even assistance in finding the closest Westpac location or ATM.