A challenger to Google Glass has already emerged — offering a cheaper alternative called the Vuzix M100. The lower-cost glasses made their debut at CES 2013, and on Thursday, the company announced the devices would soon be making their way out into the world.

Vuzix has already shipped a batch of custom-built prototypes to "Gold Developers," rumored to number in the hundreds, with the hope that they'll build apps for the new headset (yes, we're officially repurposing that word).

"It is exciting to begin shipping our first M100 Smart Glasses to developers," said Paul J. Travers, Vuzix's CEO. "Although we are seeing applications developed in most every market, there has been a strong focus on the industrial and medical markets."

Billed as a cheaper alternative to Google Glass, the M100 will have a retail price tag of under $500, and promises to make you look geekier than Sergey Brin wearing Google Glass.

In promotional photos, the M100 looks more or less like Google Glass, just 30 percent bulkier and made out of cheap plastic. Note that the device is probably not finalized yet and the final version might look less ... well, cheap.

Aesthetics aside, the M100 shares several commonalities with Google's head-mounted computer. Both run on Android. Both record video and display information within a graphical augmented-reality overlay. The pseudo-spectacles will also track your head like Google Glass.

Through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, the glasses can connect wirelessly to an Android or iOS handset and receive notifications for incoming calls, texts and emails.

The M100 is not Vuzix's first foray into the world of electronic eyewear. The company was the first to create a stereoscopic 3D set of specs for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Vuzix Raptyr, when it was announced at CES 2011, was the first see-through augmented reality display built for the consumer market.