SYNNEX INSPIRE — With little fanfare, Synnex on Thursday said it will add Google’s Glass Enterprise Edition 2 to its line card. Google announced the product in May. The Google augmented reality (AR) headset is being offered through Synnex Stellr, the rebranding of the distributor’s cloud/mobility business unit, announced in May.

The augmented reality headset is a small, lightweight wearable computer with a transparent display for hands-free work. The new version of Glass Enterprise Edition offers better efficiency and is built on the more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 platform.

Synnex’s Rob Moyer

“Synnex Stellr implements intelligent cloud-based solutions to solve real business problems in an era of disruptive digital transformation,” said Rob Moyer, senior vice president, cloud services, mobility and IoT at Synnex. “The Glass agreement makes next-generation IoT solutions more readily available to commercial and enterprise [businesses], while presenting a significant expansion of Google offerings to our strategic reseller and developer communities.”

In August, Synnex Stellr announced that it would offer Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3A phones through an expanded relationship with Google’s hardware and services team. The two companies have been doing business together since 2013.

“This is an important step for our mobility business as it allows customers to access leading unlocked mobile phones with the support needed to activate their devices through our strong carrier relationships,” Moyers said at the time.

The new AR headset offers power savings, better performance and support for computer vision and advanced machine-learning capabilities. For the latest version of its AR headset, Google partnered with Smit Optics to make Glass-compatible safety frames for a variety of work environments, such as the manufacturing floor and maintenance facilities.

Other new product features include improved camera performance for video streaming and collaboration, and a USB-C port that supports faster charging and improved battery life. Built on Android, Glass Enterprise Edition 2 is easier to develop for and deploy, and because it’s built on Android, it’s easier for customers to integrate the services and APIs they already use. The product also supports Android Enterprise Mobile Device Management.

Through this new agreement partners can provide end-to-end Glass solutions for businesses using their expert, industry-specific knowledge to develop solutions for Glass as well as to help run training, manage infrastructure integrations and offer customer support, Synnex said.

While Synnex Stellr, at its simplest, is the rebranding of the distributor’s CloudSolv marketplace and community, that eliminates the barriers between hardware and connectivity to develop comprehensive solutions that address the convergence of cloud, mobility and IoT — it’s much more than that.

“We pick the vendors that are spending the most money on research and development and our job is to go to market and help scale those businesses,” said Moyer. “So, when it comes to Google, they started out as a great business in [education]; a lot of their consumer products are coming into the commercial space, and all we’re doing is taking advantage of a market that’s happening.”

Noting that Google has a great brand, Moyer said partners are recognizing that Google products resonate with end users.

“You see a lot more partners building businesses around the [Google] ecosystem,” he said.

Who are these partners that are off and running with Google products? According to Moyer, they are …

… mobility partners who work on the edge and work with Synnex carrier partners.

“Mainstream it’s more the born-in-the-cloud developer, analytics type of partners,” he said, noting that Google is a good fit for collaboration.

Synnex is opening the door to a new breed of partner, one that industry experts have called the alternative or alt channel — or shadow channel.

“I have a simple view of it; I call it the non-labeled channel,” said Moyer. “I have a big business with Google. I have a big business with ‘the Verizons,’ and who thinks of Verizon as a channel company?” he said. “Our strategy is of cloud mobility and putting it together, which is different from everybody — that’s the new Stellr.

Moyer is pitching Stellr as a new channel community.

“My spin is that it’s a modernized approach to channel,” he said. “These partners focus on customer experience. Our interaction with them is different.”

Synnex Stellr talks to these partners about how it can modernize different aspects of its business for them — sales, marketing, operations, even communications.

Stay tuned, as Synnex Stellr opens up about what it’s been doing for the past couple years.