Google Stays in the Augmented Reality Race with a New Acquisition

Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google recently agreed to buy North, a Canadian start-up that produces smart glasses. Google didn't disclose the size of the deal, but The Globe and Mail pegs the value at around $180 million.

North's Focal smart glasses look more like regular glasses than the original Google Glass, which had a protruding camera. However, a limited number of apps, a cumbersome fitting process, and a lofty launch price of $1,000 (cut to $600 just weeks later) all doomed the North device.

Last December, North discontinued Focals 1.0 and announced the development of Focals 2.0 to address the original device's shortcomings. However, the company recently announced it will no longer ship Focals 2.0, and its team will join Google to advance its "hardware efforts and ambient computing future."

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Source Fool.com