Google Glass carries a hefty price tag of $1,500 but the electrical components used in the eyewear sum up to a mere $80 as found by a tech site Teardown.com.
Google Glass is by far one of the most popular wearable and highly-publicized tech gadgets in the market, which needs no detailed intro. But any new information on Google's next-gen specs is bound to attract consumer's interest. While Google is taking a break from its remarkable one-day sale, TechInsights' Teardown.com took the Glass for a ride. By a ride we mean the analysts working for the tech site opened up the entire eyewear part-by-part and estimated the price of each component. What's really surprising is the final cost of all the equipments together came up to $80, while Google has been selling its eyewear for a hefty sum of $1,500.
Google Glass first went on public sale for a limited time on April 15, with a $1500 price tag. The popularity of the Glass got several buyers into shelling out the huge sum to purchase it so much so that Google ran out of its cotton white variant within hours and finally updated its site with a message that read it was out of spots in the Explorer program. Google refers to Glass owners as Explorers, who have helped the web giant with several insights to improve the product before it is released to the general public later this year. Despite the popularity, several interested buyers couldn't purchase the Glass due to its hefty price tag. But Google has promised to bring down the cost when it is broadly available.
Google hasn't justified the heavy price of its Glass but the work-of-art involved in the eyewear speaks for itself. But here is a chance to look at the detail of how much Glass is actually worth, based on the components used and not the idea or the labor. According to Teardown.com, the breakdown of Glass components revealed the Glass costs $1,420 less than the price tag.
The most expensive component used in the Glass is TI's OMAP 4430 applications processor, which was listed on the tech site for $13.96. Other materials including display, touchscreen and glass cost just $3, a battery worth $1.14, camera, $5.66, 16GB of NAND flash memory from Toshiba costs $8.18, non-electric material worth $13.63 and other supporting materials. The total comes up to $79.78.
The break down cost does not include the assembling costs, handsome salaries that Google pays to its engineers and the fact that it is built in California makes it more expensive, Wall Street Journal reports.
But a Google spokesperson refuted the $80 price tag and told WSJ that the figure is "absolutely wrong." It remains a mystery on what the Glass price will be when it will be launched later this year.
