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Dead serious. "Cool" is all this product needs to be successful. People buy sunglasses. People like Snapchat. At $129 this is a no-brainer. Don't underestimate

Dead serious. "Cool" is all this product needs to be successful. People buy sunglasses. People like Snapchat. At $129 this is a no-brainer. Don't underestimate the power of social signaling.

smokeyj 10y ago
Reads like a full page ad by the WSJ. Uncool on multiple levels.
mgiannopoulos 10y ago
The price is quite right. The design remains to be tested in real environments with real people. Let's not forget the reactions to Google Glass. Framing (pun intended) of the intended use will be everything
Disruptive_Dave 10y ago
I'm with you on the idea that "cool" and "lifestyle" sell, especially when they're backed by celebs. That said, Snapchat isn't a lifestyle product, it's an app. Moving from pocket to face is a monumental transition with monumental challenges, but certainly one worth trying. My money says the glasses never become mass adopted but maybe Snapchat - sorry, Snap - learns a few things along the way that set it up for success with Hardware Product #2.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  And hardware product #2 could be an interface with even less friction. Remember Memoto? — The lifelogging camera that clips on your shirt; it looks like they're called Narrative now [0]. If Snapchat owns the camera hardware they have total control over analytics. They could become the platform for sharing daily moments. At some point, that's what Facebook was, except there was always an app layer in-between. [0]: http://getnarrative.com http://getnarrative.com
yolesaber 10y ago
> Don't underestimate the power of social signaling. You mean the social signaling that is going to brand these users as "glassholes" as well? >At $129 this is a no-brainer. Please step out of your tech bubble. Most snapchat users are teenagers or college-age persons who absolutely do not have $129 to drop on a pair of novelty sunglasses.
- berberous 10y ago
  Cheaper than a pair of raybans, which are fairly ubiquitous. If they are successful, the price will drop too. If the hardware is minimal, and people like the design, why not buy these instead of whatever other sunglasses they were going to buy and get a fun toy as well?
  - yolesaber 10y ago
    Raybans actually look nice and maintain their value. These look like they were designed by a committee that googled "cool millennial"
  - memonkey 10y ago
    All the young 20 something year olds that I know are still not dropping $120 on sun glasses unless they are young college graduated professionals. Most are not. And I'm a 28 year old professional that wears $10 knock offs.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- dilap 10y ago
  Kanye did one of his popup stores near my house recently. Line of teenagers two blocks long waiting to buy $400 T-shirts. If it's cool, they'll find the $.
  - yolesaber 10y ago
    Kanye is cool and his clothes have massive resale value. Clunky nerd gadgets spotlighted in the WSJ have neither.
AJ007 10y ago
The trendy end of fashion always looks ridiculous after it falls out of style. Snapchat still has the trendiness that Google and Facebook lost long ago. If you think otherwise, find a few 20 year olds (outside of tech) and ask them what they think of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat. Facebook probably can still use Instagram's brand, so that is an edge over Google. If they can do it soon enough while resisting branding the hardware as "Facebook" is another matter. That also means they probably have to already be close to releasing a finished product. The larger question to me is who will have the stamina to thrive in the post-smartphone era? Snapchat may be able to break to ice and get a lot of people to wear something weird and clunky. By generation two or three, what happens if Apple, Magic Leap, or someone else is able to produce a more refined & seamless wearable? To "win" Snapchat will have to produce an incredibly robust AR headset that no one thinks twice about wearing all day long. Other commenters are correct, the article reads like a shameless press release.
ams6110 10y ago
No, they look ridiculous. If anyone walked up to me wearing those I'd have to really restrain myself from ripping them off their face and stepping on them. At the very least they'd get a laugh.
- ENGNR 10y ago
  That's pretty much the intention, they're only supposed to be worn at special events so it's super overt that you could be filming

Dead serious. "Cool" is all this product needs to be successful. People buy sunglasses. People like Snapchat. At $129 this is a no-brainer. Don't underestimate the power of social signaling.

smokeyj 10y ago

Reads like a full page ad by the WSJ. Uncool on multiple levels.

mgiannopoulos 10y ago

The price is quite right. The design remains to be tested in real environments with real people. Let's not forget the reactions to Google Glass. Framing (pun intended) of the intended use will be everything

Disruptive_Dave 10y ago

I'm with you on the idea that "cool" and "lifestyle" sell, especially when they're backed by celebs. That said, Snapchat isn't a lifestyle product, it's an app. Moving from pocket to face is a monumental transition with monumental challenges, but certainly one worth trying. My money says the glasses never become mass adopted but maybe Snapchat - sorry, Snap - learns a few things along the way that set it up for success with Hardware Product #2.

tedmiston 10y ago
And hardware product #2 could be an interface with even less friction. Remember Memoto? — The lifelogging camera that clips on your shirt; it looks like they're called Narrative now [0]. If Snapchat owns the camera hardware they have total control over analytics. They could become the platform for sharing daily moments. At some point, that's what Facebook was, except there was always an app layer in-between. [0]: http://getnarrative.com http://getnarrative.com

yolesaber 10y ago

> Don't underestimate the power of social signaling. You mean the social signaling that is going to brand these users as "glassholes" as well? >At $129 this is a no-brainer. Please step out of your tech bubble. Most snapchat users are teenagers or college-age persons who absolutely do not have $129 to drop on a pair of novelty sunglasses.

berberous 10y ago
Cheaper than a pair of raybans, which are fairly ubiquitous. If they are successful, the price will drop too. If the hardware is minimal, and people like the design, why not buy these instead of whatever other sunglasses they were going to buy and get a fun toy as well?
- yolesaber 10y ago
  Raybans actually look nice and maintain their value. These look like they were designed by a committee that googled "cool millennial"
- memonkey 10y ago
  All the young 20 something year olds that I know are still not dropping $120 on sun glasses unless they are young college graduated professionals. Most are not. And I'm a 28 year old professional that wears $10 knock offs.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
dilap 10y ago
Kanye did one of his popup stores near my house recently. Line of teenagers two blocks long waiting to buy $400 T-shirts. If it's cool, they'll find the $.
- yolesaber 10y ago
  Kanye is cool and his clothes have massive resale value. Clunky nerd gadgets spotlighted in the WSJ have neither.

AJ007 10y ago

The trendy end of fashion always looks ridiculous after it falls out of style. Snapchat still has the trendiness that Google and Facebook lost long ago. If you think otherwise, find a few 20 year olds (outside of tech) and ask them what they think of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Snapchat. Facebook probably can still use Instagram's brand, so that is an edge over Google. If they can do it soon enough while resisting branding the hardware as "Facebook" is another matter. That also means they probably have to already be close to releasing a finished product. The larger question to me is who will have the stamina to thrive in the post-smartphone era? Snapchat may be able to break to ice and get a lot of people to wear something weird and clunky. By generation two or three, what happens if Apple, Magic Leap, or someone else is able to produce a more refined & seamless wearable? To "win" Snapchat will have to produce an incredibly robust AR headset that no one thinks twice about wearing all day long. Other commenters are correct, the article reads like a shameless press release.

ams6110 10y ago

No, they look ridiculous. If anyone walked up to me wearing those I'd have to really restrain myself from ripping them off their face and stepping on them. At the very least they'd get a laugh.

ENGNR 10y ago
That's pretty much the intention, they're only supposed to be worn at special events so it's super overt that you could be filming