Google Glass Gets New Leader, as Company Hires Marketing Expert

Google has been busy over the past month getting its Glass wearable into the hands of more customers, and now the company has also appointed a new leader for the team behind the gadget.

Google has announced Ivy Ross as the new head of Glass. Ross, a marketing expert, comes to Google after stints with Calvin Klein, Gap, Mattel and several others.

Her most relevant experience is her work with Bausch & Lomb, a maker of eye health products. There, Ross served as vice president of design and development for outlook eye wear.

At Google, Ross will be tasked with figuring out how to market Glass as a product for all consumers.

“With your help, I look forward to answering the seemingly simple, but truly audacious questions Glass poses: Can technology be something that frees us up and keeps us in the moment, rather than taking us out of it? Can it help us look up and out at the world around us, and the people who share it with us?” Ross wrote in a note posted online for Glass users.

Ross’s hiring appears to be another indication that Google is getting close to taking Glass out of its beta phase and launching a wide general release of the gadget later this year.

Last month, Google held a one-day online sale of the device and made it available to any U.S adult for the first time. Google said the sale was a success and decided to begin selling the product online indefinitely earlier this week.

Earlier this month, Google also posted a note saying that it would soon begin exploring new ways to get the gadget to new customers.

Customers can purchase Glass now by going online and paying $1,500.

This article appeared in print in the May 19th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.