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Will Google Glass be a success? Apple CEO Tim Cook isn't so sure.

At a tech conference this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he found the wearable tech market interesting, but worried aloud about the commercial prospects of Google Glass-like devices. 

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Reuters
Apple CEO Tim Cook is pictured during a Senate homeland security and governmental affairs investigations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in this May 21, 2013 file photo. Cook spoke this week about wearable tech such as the Google Glass spectacles.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Google Glass, the new high-tech spectacles from the team at Mountain View, are expected to go into wide release sometime in 2014. 

Early tester versions of the device have stirred up an incredible amount of interest in the tech press, and plenty of developers are already lining up to produce custom software for Glass. But will the technology really appeal to consumers? Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, isn't so sure. In a conversation this week with journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at the All Things D conference, Cook said the wearable tech market was "ripe for exploration." 

Still, he cautioned that although there were "lots of gadgets in the space," he has not encountered anything "great out there... Nothing that's going to convince a kid that's never worn glasses or a band or a watch or whatever to wear one," Cook continued (hat tip to Ars Technica for the transcript). "At least I haven't seen it. So there's lots of things to solve in this space." 

A few things to note here: First is that Apple and Google are competitors, so it's not particularly surprising that Cook would play down the commercial potential of Google Glass.

Second: Apple is widely believed to be developing its own brand of "wearable tech" – a "smart watch" that would allow users to check e-mail, send texts, or even browse the Web from a tiny, wrist-mounted screen. 

Third: We sort of agree with Cook about the widespread appeal of wearable tech, and especially computerized eyeglasses. Yes, there will be plenty of early adopters and gadget geeks that go in for this kind of thing. But we imagine that, at least initially, the market for smart glasses – no matter how much cool stuff those smart glasses can do – will be relatively small. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

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