Sony announced availability of a developer version of its SmartEyeglass product, as it is “moving forward with preparations towards the commercialisation of the product”.

But full launch availability appears to be some way off: the company said it “eyes the commercialisation of the product for both consumers and enterprise customers in 2016”.

Sony’s efforts come shortly after Google, the main proponent of smart glasses, re-focused its efforts following its Google Glass Explorer programme.

The SED-E1 SmartEyeglass Developer Edition will be available in Japan, US, UK and Germany from 10 March 2015.

It will also be offered to enterprise customers in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and Sweden in the same timeframe, “in order to promote the development of apps geared toward industrial use”.

This is accompanied by an official release of the supporting SDK, and upgraded version of a preview released in September.

It is being sold via a dedicated page on the Sony Developer World application development support website. Pricing is $840/£520/€670, in each case excluding tax.

“Through this official release, it is looking to promote the development of even more apps compatible with the device. Sony also has its eyes set on the future of wearable devices and their diversifying use cases, and it hopes to tap into the ingenuity of developers to improve upon the user experience that the SmartEyeglass provides,” the company wrote.

The device is said to include a “diverse range of sensing technology”, including CMOS image sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, brightness sensor and microphone. These, along with GPS data from a connected smartphone, can provide information tailored to the user’s “immediate circumstances”.