Snap Inc’s wearable camera sunglasses, aptly titled Spectacles, launched with plenty of momentum and seem to be a hit among those who have already purchased the device (since Snap recently begun selling Spectacles on Amazon, user reviews are predominately positive). However, according to Snap’s Q2 earnings, interest among perspective buyers may be waning.
According to the new report, sales of Spectacles are down nearly 35 percent, revealing that the company generated $5.4 million in “other” revenue (made up of mostly Spectacle sales) compared to the $8.3 million Snap earned in Q1. Spectacles retail for $130, which means the company only sold roughly 41,500 pairs during the quarter.
Although the company recently expanded their online sales as well as in-store sales across Europe using the company’s very own Snapbot vending machines, the sales of Spectacles are still decreasing.
It seems that Snap’s venture into the universe of wearable tech may be an indication that the world is still not ready for the idea of wearable cameras incorporated into glasses. It will be interesting to see Snap’s Q3 earnings to see if the decreasing sales trend continues. Reports earlier this year suggest that Snap is already working on a second version of their Spectacle glasses putting augmented reality as a focus of the newer device, though the decreasing sales of its current product may be an indication that public interest isn’t quite there yet, particularly if added features like augmented reality increase the price point.
Snap is not the first company to dive into the world of wearable tech. Both Google and Samsung have attempted to corner the market of wearable tech in the past with lackluster results. Snap, no doubt, had high hopes of appealing to their younger audience.
The decrease in Spectacle sales was just one of many factors that made for a disappointing quarter for Snap Inc. The company missed its mark of an estimated $175 million new users, coming in short at $173 million, and reported a net loss of $443 million up from $116 million a year ago. The social media company’s excursion into becoming a camera company may be a short one. Time will tell.
Do you think the world is still not ready for wearable tech? What do you think companies are missing when designing their wearable tech? Let us know in the comments.
Shocked -----------------------------------*--not shocked
Wearable tech, sure, people like that and I think there will be more sales of it all the time. Silly SnapChat glasses I don't think are the tech people will want though.
I don't think it's accurate to condemn all wearable tech. It's that the industry hasn't figured out what customers actually want. Clearly, glasses that record directly to Snapchap and do nothing else is not it. Make me some wearable tech that I actually want and that'll be another story.
What do you want?
I don't know. But that's what innovation is. People weren't asking for cars until they were invited by someone. People weren't asking for iPhones until Apple created them. My job as a consumer isn't to tell a company what will be truly innovative, that's what they're supposed to be good at.
Yeah I totally agree with you. And for some reason, no one has been able to nail the wearable camera glasses yet.
They look ridiculous all new wearable tech just look plain ridiculous. Design would have to be in the high 80% of why people don't buy them. Than its the convenience factor, is a pain to sync, do they just auto sync, how many steps does it take to use it vs just pulling out your phone. Design and does it solve a problem, plain and simple really. 1% is creating something you never knew you needed.
I own a set of these and I have to say the quality is actually pretty fantastic *for a full-time wearable camera*. It definitely has its flaws, though, with the main being that the video orientation effect is exclusive to snapchat (you may have to google what that is). BUT to answer your question about retrieving the raw videos, there are two methods.
First, SD:
1. Tap Spectacles to record video
2. SD version syncs via bluetooth to Snapchat app
3. Download to camera roll or post to story/send to friend/etc
Now HD, which picks up at step 2 above:
3. Select "Get HD"
4. Snapchat will activate wifi on Spectacles, swap to settings and connect via wifi, swap back
5. Snaps will download from Spectacles, post or download as you see fit.
Step 4 could probably be broken up into two steps since it DOES take a few seconds for the wifi to activate. Despite that, I've still found a couple minutes break or at the end of the day where I'd just take all the snaps from the day, download and post them wherever.
Here's a video with a broad collection of footage shot as I was running around the other day https://vimeo.com/229329631/62f10885f2
Man I really need to learn how to short stocks because SNAP is a sinking ship. I can't imagine how they are going to survive much longer.
theres and app for that.
I think for everything.
$173 million new users!?