Google Glass: Can SiMEye & others challenge the throne?

COMMENT: Since it was announced in 2012, Google's pioneering wearable kit, Google Glass, has been met with equal amounts of awe and ridicule.

Will it change the way we view the world forever? Is that a good thing? Is anyone even going to wear a pair of funky' glasses or they merely a short-lived gimmick?

Privacy fears have since cropped up as well as a concern about the hefty $1,500 (900) price tag for early adopters and, now, just as Google Glass clutches onto its place in the public consciousness, rival products have begun to emerge to challenge its position.

One such product is ChipSiP's Smart Glass, SiMEye, which was recently unveiled at Asia's biggest tech show Computex by the Taiwanese company. It now looks set to provide some genuine competition to Google's augmented reality glasses.

Wearable tech is an exciting and fast-growing market and, despite some dubbing new products now daring to emulate Google mere copycats, it has to be noted that the Smart Glass boasts features that are either absent or underdeveloped in Google's offering. It's an imperfect product, even if it has been tempting to think that the race was already over.

The ability for users to download Android apps directly from the Play Store rather than via another device (as with Glass), video capture up to 1080p (four times the resolution of Glass) are attractive propositions. What's more, a significantly lower price tag of $500 (300) is the thing that could surely entice customers to SiMEye the most. It might look like the ugly stepsister now, but that could change in a heartbeat.

Because, while style can be important to the average consumer, and Google Glass while still rather clunky and obvious-looking, has that over its various rivals power, ability and convenience are much more valuable in the long-term. For business use, for example, it's clear that the competition is far from over.