Long live Google Glass!

According to The Wall Street Journal, Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, has confirmed that Google didn't scrap the Google Glass wearable device because it's "too important". The company merely stopped selling the first version as well as the Explorer Programme, with the idea that Google Glass would transition from being a secretive Google X project to a standalone unit.

Tony Fadell, the head of Google’s Nest connected home division, now heads Google Glass and is apparently hoping to make it ready for users, Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal: “It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google,” Schmidt explained. “We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true."

Google Glass was thought to be in danger of becoming a fond yet long-forgotten memory, as Google announced on 15 January that it would not only end sales of Google Glass but also kill the Explorer Programme. The news shocked many who still expected Google to do a full consumer launch, but for those who followed the search company closely, it seemed like a long time coming.

Schmidt has stressed however that Google is all about taking risks. The company views Google Glass as a long-term project, sort of like its self-driving car strategy, and such projects take time.

In other words: if you were hoping to see Google Glass hit retailer shelves one day, your dream isn't dead yet.

READ: Google Glass: A brief history