Google Serves You Free Champagne When You Pick Up Your Google Glass
Google's plan to get consumers to fork over $1,500 for the future a face computer has been orchestrated less like a Pavlovian product launch (designed to make tech bloggers salivate) and more like a PSYOP campaign for luxury goods.
Hence you can spot Sergey Brin peacocking glass on the runway, hiding out in the Vanity Fair hedgerow, and subtly sporting the device in urban casual settings. There are waiting lists to be invited to pay the company $1,500. Socially awkward GOOG is even trying to make it stylish.
Further evidence that Google Glass is the early adopter's Birkin bag? The sumptuous concierge service that accompanies the unboxing. Aaron Henshaw, cofounder of Grand St., a sleek online boutique for new-fangled gadgets, photographed the experience for a post on Medium about his first 24-hours wearing Glass around New York.
At 3pm on April 25, Dustin (my plus-one) and I headed over to the 8th floor of Chelsea Market — a gorgeous, sun-filled loft. It felt nothing like previous Google events I’d attended, which were crowded but modest. Two young, friendly Glass-wearers took our IDs and showed us inside.
We were escorted into a beautiful lofted space, with windows and mirrors everywhere.
After Marina, our Glass Guide, greeted us, we sat down to get set up. We accepted free champagne because nothing says day drinking like momentous and historical advances in personal computing. Then she took us over to a wall to try on all the different color options that Glass is available in (teal, orange, shale, charcoal and white).
These days, so much emphasis is placed on the unboxing experience, and this one certainly did not disappoint.
. . . After another glass of champagne, it was time to go out into the wild.
It's unclear whether all 8,000 #ifihadglass winners will get the same treatment as the developers in the first batch. But another "Glass Explorer" told Valleywag he also had access to "an open bar w/champagne, cupcakes, brownies, etc."
Just beware, though, your new status symbol isn't necessarily going to inspire envy. "Walking the streets of New York was much more interesting," writes Henshaw:
Some hipster girl on a bike yelled “FUCK YOU AND YOUR GOOGLE GLASS!”
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