SiME Smart Glass Wants to Compete With Google Glass

Once upon a time, late Apple icon Steve Jobs quoted Pablo Picasso and said that “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” We don’t want to relate this quote to the company’s inclination to “borrow” ideas from its competitors and sell them as they were its own, but we will talk about a case of “artistic inspiration” related to one of the hottest devices on the market: the Google Glass.

We have talked a lot about the Google Glass in the past, but today we will focus on a gadget that looks like a worthy opponent to the hi-tech device.

If you ever considered that nothing can compete with Google’s trophy gadget, you were wrong, as there is no serious tech company out there to not try to copy, develop and improve an existing product in order to deliver an even better performing one.

So let’s talk about the Taiwanese company ChipSiP and their SiME Smart Glass, a prototype similar to the Google Glass that was showcased at the Computex 2014 event.

According to the tech journalists who got their hands on the device,

In colorful blue, orange, and black frames, the headsets look similar to Google’s Glass, with the exception of the rectangular blocks near the frames’ earpieces. Overall, the demo units on display were somewhat flimsy and tilted to the side due to the weight of the built-in screen.

Can the SiME Smart Glass even dare to compete with the Google Glass?

Well, nobody knows yet, but, to the Taiwanese product’s defense, let’s just say it sports an interesting feature that is less present in the Google Glass. We are talking about an augmented reality application that was described as surprising, to say the least. In more words, the ones testing the device and benefiting from an augmented reality tour at the company’s booth said that

We were amused by the dancing figures of Chinese deities that popped up from posters as we scanned a desk with the glasses. This feature could be one way SiME gains an edge on Google, which is still lacking a good augmented reality application for Glass.

And this is not all there is. The SiME Smart Glass runs a full version on Android 4.2.2 and plans to upgrade to the Android 4.4 KitKat by July. Moreover, this specific Glass will allow users to download apps directly from the Google Play store directly to the Glass and not to the smartphone, as in the case of Google Glass.

Of course, the SiME Smart Glass manufacturers hope to compete with Google Glass based on a lower price for the upcoming product. The developers’ version is said to be released sometime in July this year, for only $1,000, while a public consumption – ready product might sport even a $500 price. We hope that in the next two years, the company will improve the SiME Smart Glass, not because we are in favor of it, but because so far, it is a poorly executed and poorly performing copy of the Google Glass and we just don’t like copycats.