Snap isn’t walking away from its high-quality smart shades.
The parent company of Snapchat, Snap Inc., recently announced Spectacles 3, an upgraded version of its video-recording sunglasses with new 3D effects and an eye-popping price tag. The device will ship in the fall but is available for preorder now; it retails at $380, more than double the cost of its previous version.
In 2016, Snap Inc. launched a pair of video-recording glasses called Spectacles through vending machines. The glasses were a viral hit; people waited hours to get them. Some resellers listed them on eBay for more than $900. But the hype fizzled, and the company ultimately had to take a nearly $40 million writedown for excess inventory.
Last year Snap (SNAP) brought back the Spectacles, which had a similar design to the original pair but were smaller and water resistant.
Snapchat is back with a sleek new design, round lenses and 3D cameras. The glasses let users take photos and videos by tapping a button on the frame, and transferring them to the Snapchat app. Spectacles’ dual HD cameras aim to capture depth and dimension with 3D in the same way as human eyes do.
Snapchat has released a video teasing Spectacles, a new pair of camera-equipped sunglasses that will add special effects to your video Snapchats. For example, it showed videos overlayed with an augmented reality sting ray or bright pink bird.
In a statement to CNN Business, Snap said it sees a future where computing overlays the real world, such as with augmented reality. It’s well-known for its AR filters, which allow users to put virtual flower crowns and dog ears on top of photos and videos.
The new model of the product comes in black and “mineral,” a rose-gold shade. The color of previous versions was orange and blue.
However, Snap has learned from past mistakes and the company has promised that Spectacles 3 will be a limited-edition product. The company plans to produce fewer of the new sunglasses than it did with previous versions.
Despite the initial failure of Google Glass for consumers and the recent flop of Spectacles, tech companies are still actively investing in smart glasses. Google is now focusing on offering augmented reality glasses for businesses, and Apple is rumored to be developing AR glasses.
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are all diversifying by developing hardware products, which further embeds them in the lives of their users. Facebook recently waded into hardware with its video-chatting Portal device.
Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at research firm eMarketer, praised Snap for continuing to experiment with its vision for augmented reality glasses and virtual objects. However, she doubted that the new version of Spectacles would have “mass appeal.”
The high price and clunky user interface will likely dissuade most Snapchat users from using the app.
Snapchat has been steadily growing since a poorly-received redesign of its app. In its most recent quarter, Snapchat added 13 million daily users, ending a long period of lackluster growth and pushing its total audience above 200 million daily users for the first time.
