谷歌暫停銷售谷歌眼鏡
Google has suspended sales of the test version of its smartglasses and reshuffled the group behind the project to put it under different management.
谷歌暫停了測試版智能眼鏡的銷售，並重組了該項目的幕後團隊，將其置於不同機構的管理之下。The action follows a troubled trial period during which the device, called Google Glass, has been widely criticised as a threat to privacy, with many early advocates in the tech world giving up wearing the product.
此前，谷歌曾身陷一場十分麻煩的官司。在那段時期內，被稱爲谷歌眼鏡(Google Glass)這款設備被廣泛批評爲對隱私權的一大威脅。在科技界，許多該產品最初的倡導者都已不再佩戴這款產品。
One person familiar with Google’s decision said, however, that the company was not backing away from the troubled project, but was pushing ahead with a second version.
不過，一位此決定的知情人士稱，谷歌並未退出這一陷入麻煩的項目，而是正在努力推出新的版本。
“Going back to the drawing board is the right thing to do” because few owners still wear them, but it is “too premature” to declare Glass a failure, said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Kantar Worldpanel. Glass was an ambitious early attempt at wearable technology, which “consumers still do not fully understand and are unwilling, for the most part, to spend a lot of money on,” she added.
凱度消費者指數(Kantar Worldpanel)分析師卡羅琳娜•米拉內西(Carolina Milanesi)表示，由於很少還有買主仍在佩戴這款眼鏡，“將它回爐重新設計是十分正確的選擇”。不過，現在宣稱谷歌眼鏡失敗還“爲時尚早”。她補充說，谷歌眼鏡是對可穿戴技術一次十分大膽的早期嘗試，“消費者仍未完全理解這款產品，最主要的是，他們不願花費太多資金在該產品上”。The first version had been limited to a so-called “Explorer edition” that was intended as a trial and had achieved its goal of helping the company understand the technology better, the person close to Google said. However, the company had said at one stage that it planned to put the product on general sale before the end of last year.
與谷歌關係密切的人士表示，第一版谷歌眼鏡僅限於所謂“探索者版本”，它的用意就是用於測試，並已實現了幫助谷歌提高對可穿戴技術認識的目標。不過，谷歌一度表示，計劃在2014年年底前大範圍銷售該款產品。Glass is a product of Google’s X laboratory, which was set up under co-founder Sergey Brin to make big bets on projects such as driverless cars. None of these has yet resulted in new products for Google, despite attracting great interest with their technology breakthroughs.
谷歌眼鏡是谷歌旗下X實驗室的產品。該實驗室由谷歌共同創始人謝爾蓋•布林(Sergey Brin)設立，其目的是用於豪賭無人駕駛汽車等項目。不過，儘管這些項目在技術上的突破引起了人們的極大興趣，它們還沒有爲谷歌的產品線添加新成員。The Glass project will be taken out of the X lab and put under the control of Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who runs Google’s Nest smarthome division.
谷歌將把谷歌眼鏡項目從X實驗室分離出來，置於託尼•法代爾(Tony Fadell)管控之下。法代爾曾是蘋果公司(Apple)的主管，目前管理着谷歌旗下的Nest智能家居部門。Putting Mr Fadell in charge suggested that Google would do more work on design while also looking for ways to make Glass more useful by integrating the technology with other connected home and car products, said Ms Milanesi.
米拉內西表示，讓法代爾負責該項目，意味着谷歌會在開展更多設計工作的同時，通過將該技術與其他物聯網家庭和汽車產品的整合，想辦法讓谷歌眼鏡變得更加有用。The decision marks a significant expansion of Mr Fadell’s responsibilities and throws him into a head-to-head contest with his former colleagues at Apple, whose Watch device, expected to go on sale soon, is the tech world’s other most closely followed experiment in the area.
這一決定標誌着法代爾揹負的責任大大增加，並讓他陷入與蘋果前同事針鋒相對的競爭之中。目前，蘋果公司旗下的蘋果手錶(Apple Watch)設備預計很快就會上架銷售。該產品是科技界另一款受到最密切關注的可穿戴領域試驗產品。It also represents a change in direction from the strategy that Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, had laid out. His earlier plan had been to give Mr Fadell considerable autonomy inside the company to build a big business around home automation, rather than giving him responsibility for other hardware initiatives.
此外，該決定還意味着，對於其首席執行官拉里•佩奇(Larry Page)所做的戰略佈局，谷歌正在加以調整。此前，佩奇的計劃並不是讓法代爾負責其他硬件項目，而是在公司內部賦予他極大自治權，以便圍繞家庭自動化打造規模龐大的業務。Google also hinted at shifting the focus of Glass more towards business rather than consumer use. Much of the early interest from software developers has involved writing applications for workers who need access to information while their hands are busy with other things.
此外，谷歌還暗示會把谷歌眼鏡的注意力更多地轉向商用而非家用。對於軟件開發商來說，他們最初的興趣主要放在了爲某些員工編寫應用程序上。這些員工需要在雙手被佔用時訪問各種信息。“Glass at Work has been growing and we’re seeing incredible developments with Glass in the workplace,” the company said in a statement announcing the change.
谷歌在宣佈這一調整的聲明中表示：“職場版谷歌眼鏡一直在增長。我們發現，谷歌眼鏡在職場的發展令人難以置信。”
