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But! SNAP is doing AR, Spectacles are a stroke of marketing genius, distributed to cool influencers, instead of boring geeks like Google Glass or HoloLens. \s

But! SNAP is doing AR, Spectacles are a stroke of marketing genius, distributed to cool influencers, instead of boring geeks like Google Glass or HoloLens. \s Guess you can't fool all people all the time.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Fricken 9y ago
On the earnings call they reported 5 million snaps taken using Spectacles, and $8 million in revenue from Spectacles this quarter. Maybe 55-60,000 units sold (?). That was the only thing I was curious about on the call.
- aaron-lebo 9y ago
  Is that a significant amount?
  - Fricken 9y ago
    Beats me. Maybe they have a warehouse full of them they can't get rid of. Maybe they can barely keep up with demand, I don't know. They're very cheap, it's a minimum viable product, but I'm expecting some next gen product from Snap somewhere down the line that may include some sort of HUD if not full on AR, based on their patents.
    - trevyn 9y ago
      >Maybe they can barely keep up with demand, I don't know. Definitely not that one. The Spectacles store on the Venice Beach boardwalk is always a desolate wasteland.
      - Inconel 9y ago
        I hadn't been to the Venice boardwalk in quite some time, and I didn't even know that Snap had opened up a Spectacles store there, but when I went last month I was surprised to see that on a beautiful Saturday afternoon the only store in the entire mile plus long stretch that was completely empty aside from employees was the Spectacles store. It was actually kind of disconcerting. For anyone not familiar with the Venice boardwalk, it is jam packed with stores selling overpriced food/drinks and kitschy tourist stuff. Most of the stores are small, packed with merchandise, and overflowing with people. The Spectacles store is probably one of the larger ones square footage wise, and has very prominent frontage. I've been in the area a few times over the last month and it has always been either completely empty, or almost completely empty.
- aub3bhat 9y ago
  5 Million / 50K (worse if you use 65K) = 100 Snaps per spectacle over a 90 day period = 1 Snap per spectacle per day. Thats super low engagement. For one its not going to alleviate any growth concerns. I see an Apple buyout looming.
  - Fricken 9y ago
    Spectacles aren't really comparable to Google Glass, they're more like an action camera, such as a GoPro, but dumbed down and really easy to use. What counts as high user engagement for such a product? It's the sort of thing you only take out for events and special outings.
    - aub3bhat 9y ago
      If they are supposed to function as action camera, then they are probably the lousiest ones ever designed/made. While I am sure the weather is always perfect at the Venice beach with enough sunlight. For nearly all other scenarios, where you might want a camera, you might NOT want to wear sunglasses. This is the reason why Google Glass had detachable attachment for sunglasses. The fact that they are tied to sunglasses, makes them useless in most other situations. How are you going to wear sunglasses (unless of course you are on a beach) to any indoor or late night event/outing without looking like total douchebag??
      - Fricken 9y ago
        I'm not sure you understand what action camera's are for, they're not for late night events, that's what the camera on your phone is good for, and you already have one of those. I've taken them Rock climbing, I took them out on a trail ride, I took them to the zoo, Everybody in my town is hockey crazy, I got shots of fans going nuts after a game. I shot a little cooking video, and they were actually coolest for that (or any type of instructional video)- they're simple enough that your grandma could make a cooking video, edit it, and share it. The downside is you can't really get the video up on youtube or somewhere where it can easily be shared with anyone other than your Snapchat friends. But whatever, there's probably a half dozen Shenzen startups cobbling together open source Spectacles knockoffs as we speak.
kirykl 9y ago
They fell victim to the 3rd classic blunder, never over-estimate the attention span of teens when your core product offering is on the line
- aanm1988 9y ago
  Inconceivable.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

Fricken 9y ago

On the earnings call they reported 5 million snaps taken using Spectacles, and $8 million in revenue from Spectacles this quarter. Maybe 55-60,000 units sold (?). That was the only thing I was curious about on the call.

aaron-lebo 9y ago
Is that a significant amount?
- Fricken 9y ago
  Beats me. Maybe they have a warehouse full of them they can't get rid of. Maybe they can barely keep up with demand, I don't know. They're very cheap, it's a minimum viable product, but I'm expecting some next gen product from Snap somewhere down the line that may include some sort of HUD if not full on AR, based on their patents.
  - trevyn 9y ago
    >Maybe they can barely keep up with demand, I don't know. Definitely not that one. The Spectacles store on the Venice Beach boardwalk is always a desolate wasteland.
    - Inconel 9y ago
      I hadn't been to the Venice boardwalk in quite some time, and I didn't even know that Snap had opened up a Spectacles store there, but when I went last month I was surprised to see that on a beautiful Saturday afternoon the only store in the entire mile plus long stretch that was completely empty aside from employees was the Spectacles store. It was actually kind of disconcerting. For anyone not familiar with the Venice boardwalk, it is jam packed with stores selling overpriced food/drinks and kitschy tourist stuff. Most of the stores are small, packed with merchandise, and overflowing with people. The Spectacles store is probably one of the larger ones square footage wise, and has very prominent frontage. I've been in the area a few times over the last month and it has always been either completely empty, or almost completely empty.
aub3bhat 9y ago
5 Million / 50K (worse if you use 65K) = 100 Snaps per spectacle over a 90 day period = 1 Snap per spectacle per day. Thats super low engagement. For one its not going to alleviate any growth concerns. I see an Apple buyout looming.
- Fricken 9y ago
  Spectacles aren't really comparable to Google Glass, they're more like an action camera, such as a GoPro, but dumbed down and really easy to use. What counts as high user engagement for such a product? It's the sort of thing you only take out for events and special outings.
  - aub3bhat 9y ago
    If they are supposed to function as action camera, then they are probably the lousiest ones ever designed/made. While I am sure the weather is always perfect at the Venice beach with enough sunlight. For nearly all other scenarios, where you might want a camera, you might NOT want to wear sunglasses. This is the reason why Google Glass had detachable attachment for sunglasses. The fact that they are tied to sunglasses, makes them useless in most other situations. How are you going to wear sunglasses (unless of course you are on a beach) to any indoor or late night event/outing without looking like total douchebag??
    - Fricken 9y ago
      I'm not sure you understand what action camera's are for, they're not for late night events, that's what the camera on your phone is good for, and you already have one of those. I've taken them Rock climbing, I took them out on a trail ride, I took them to the zoo, Everybody in my town is hockey crazy, I got shots of fans going nuts after a game. I shot a little cooking video, and they were actually coolest for that (or any type of instructional video)- they're simple enough that your grandma could make a cooking video, edit it, and share it. The downside is you can't really get the video up on youtube or somewhere where it can easily be shared with anyone other than your Snapchat friends. But whatever, there's probably a half dozen Shenzen startups cobbling together open source Spectacles knockoffs as we speak.

kirykl 9y ago

They fell victim to the 3rd classic blunder, never over-estimate the attention span of teens when your core product offering is on the line

aanm1988 9y ago
Inconceivable.