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| Inc |
Spectacles remain one of the best tactical moves Snap has made - it was
the launchpad which helped them move beyond their digital beginnings and
towards redefining themselves as a company. While Snapchat has left
them facing the looming spectre of financial turmoil, Spectacles have
remained successful, especially now that they've gone on sale in Europe.
And a second type appears to be in the pipeline.
There's been no official statement yet, and it's a closely guarded
secret, but reports from within the company suggest that the new specs
will be 'quite different' from the originals, and the fact that Snap
filed a patent for augmented reality glasses back in 2015 supports the
notion that the new specs will have some sort of AR functionality.
Snapchat already has an AR function in the form of World Lenses, so
applying the same logic to Spectacles would be an understandable next
step.
Snap have been linked to a few other AR hardware blueprints, such as a
helmet and a visor, but this one seems the most viable. The current
specs can only really record video and take pictures, which isn't all
that impressive in and of itself, but now that the design is out there,
there are plenty of ways Snap could improve the formula. The new specs
might even have updatable software which allows for new 'apps' to be
installed, but that's just speculation.
Spectacles have yet to heavily contribute to Snap's earnings - they've
like only just broken into six figure sales numbers for them, but as an
opening salvo into the world of hardware sales, it's significant. The
real aim was to demonstrate that Snap could make, advertise and sell
hardware which had the same kind of flavour as Snapchat, and on that
count they succeeded. The first Spectacles were almost a gimmick, but
the follow-up model may well carry more substance.
In any case, it's unlikely that we'll be seeing any definitive
information about the new Spectacles for a while yet, much less a full
public announcement. Snap will likely wait until the original pairs have
had a bit more time to branch out into more global circulation, and
they may even announce some other kind of hardware first (they're
allegedly also working on a drone), but any doubts about the company's
viability as a hardware manufacturer have been more or less
extinguished.
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