Snap, which tasted the sweetness, continued to bet on the AR photo.
Even if the first two generations of Spectacles smart glasses were cold, the Snap layout AR hardware did not stop.
August 13th news, social application Snapchat’s parent company Snap launched the third generation AR photo sunglasses Spectacles 3, equipped with dual cameras, the corresponding 3D effect will enhance the depth perception of photos and videos, color matching includes carbon black ( Carbon) and rose gold (Mineral). After taking a photo with Spectacles 3, users can upload it directly to Snapchat.
Spectacles 3 is made of a lightweight steel frame instead of the bulky plastic frame of the previous model. The price for high quality and performance is high, and the Spectacles 3 is priced at $380, double the price of the Spectacles 2 (starting at $150) released last year.
Since the release of the first generation of Spectacles in September 2016, Snap has not suffered setbacks in the wearable device of eyeglasses. Due to the overestimation of demand, the first generation of Spectacles was unsalable, and a large number of assembled and unassembled glasses were unattended. In 2017, Snap lost $40 million in inventory losses.
Let’s learn from the past, the latest Spectacles 3 is positioned as a limited edition, not targeted at high school students and college students in the core group of Snapchat users, but to attract a small number of fashion-forward people.
Snap sees AR as a “required investment for the platform.” Snap’s earnings report for the second quarter of this year shows that daily average active users (DAU) climbed to 203 million, an increase of 13 million from the previous month. Chief Financial Officer Derek Anderson is on the financial report. At the meeting, about 7 million to 9 million new users came from new AR lenses. The AR lens adds a variety of filters to your photos and is popular with younger users.
Snap’s emphasis on AR technology has never dropped, and hardware is considered an important element. Snap’s positioning on the official website is a camera company. Faces are an important area for photographing. The Spectacles 3 released this time is to build a face-centric computing platform.
Last week, Snap announced that it would raise $1 billion through the issuance of bonds. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a memo: “We will continue to focus on developing content, games and augmented reality platforms.
In the past year, Snap has been plagued by growth bottlenecks and stock price declines. There have been rumors of executive departures and acquisitions, but Snap reversed the negative growth trend of users this year. In the second quarter, revenue increased by 48% to 3.88. US$100 million; net loss also narrowed by 28% year-on-year in the second quarter.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has said that the company will eventually achieve profitability in 2019. Although the development of AR functions has achieved initial results, Snap’s living environment is also facing the squeeze. The competition from social networking giant Facebook and its Instagram and rising star TikTok is becoming more and more fierce. Snap needs innovative fresh blood and constant development and iterative products, and AR hardware seems to be the most promising direction at the moment.
The first image of this article is from Snap’s official website