Vuzix has announced that they will soon be begin shipping the M100 Smart Glasses. These initial shipments will be heading towards developers, and while it would be nice to see this as an announcement for the everyday user — this should have some perks for when that day does arrive. Basically, Vuzix has begun shipping the M100 Smart Glasses to developers so they will be able to “start creating and testing their apps on the real hardware.”

It is also worth noting that these initial shipments will be “custom built prototypes” and that they will be available on a first come first served basis. Vuzix notes that these initial shipments will be going out to their gold level developers and that they can expect delivery sometime “within the next 30 days as additional units become available.” According to Vuzix, they have seen hundreds of developers signing up since the program launched.

Our sister site SlashGear managed to spend some hands-on time with the glasses during CES. You can get a look at the video below. Otherwise, for those not as familiar with the Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses, these are running Android and it has been said that they will come in at “under $500.” Time will tell how well received these will be, but they are certainly quite a bit less as compared to the Google Glasses.

The Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as an eye-mounted 800 x 480 display, 4GB of internal storage, a memory card slot and 720p HD camera. The glasses will also have a 3-axis head tracker, gyroscope, digital compass and GPS. Battery life is said to be up to 8 hours, but of course, that will likely vary with real-world use. All said and done, for now these are heading towards developers, but hopefully these shipments mean progress is being made and a public release is getting closer.

[via SlashGear]