Google Glass price, release date: $500 is the price point that will make the Google Glass the next iPhone for the next few years. According to Marketing Land, Google Glass will become a mainstream product that is expected to sell one million units in its first year of release which is pegged at 2014.

A report by Business Insider (BI) Analyst predicts that Glass will sell 18 million units by 2014 if the device sells by around $500. The report also noted that it could bring $10.5 billion in annual revenue to Google by 2018.

“Despite the clunkiness and awkwardness of the early beta version of Glass, we think computerized glasses will establish themselves in certain professional niches and gradually become a mainstream product,” the report by Business Insider says.

“Early adopters will use them for medical training, scientific exploration, and photography. They in turn will popularize Glass and other smart eyewear among wider populations still unsure about the appeal.”

In the past few months since Google launched the Explorers program, the device has been applied on a range of situations. Philips announcement that it will consider Glass as a device for operating rooms has been one of the most significant to date.

In an earlier research done by Forrester, it noted that there 1 out of five Americans wants to have a Google Glass. Base on current population count, that would mean at least 21 million units of Glass to be sold.

In terms of revenue stream, many are expecting Google to earn from advertising for the device. App developers are also gung-ho in creating Glassware for the device.

In London, an app called GlassFit received more than $100,000 worth of funding from a crowdsourcing site to create one of the first fitness-oriented apps for the lens.

The current entry free for Glass Explorers, which enables a developer or his friend to purchase a Glass is $1,500. Many are speculating that the device, which receives monthly software update, will be available for consumers by mid-2014.