I don't think Snap deserved their IPO valuation, and the company is uninvestable anyway because of the share structure that locks voting power forever away from common stock holders. But I'll be sad if Snap goes away because they're so different from everybody else in this space.
Seemed to take 5 min when I did it. Enough to kill the moment. Sharp contrast to how fast Snap is on iOS.
Plus the glasses are uncomfortable and have large blind spots, so I can't wear them all the time (i.e. not good for driving)
The upload takes place in the background, so usually it would be completed by the time you're done with whatever activity and go into the app.
I'm not sure about that... if you have a technology that won't quite fit in a 'standard' design, but you try and force it anyway, it'll look bad regardless. Better to embrace the goofiness and make something a little fun instead.
The problem was that nobody knew what to do with them, and Snap being setup the way it is, it's too hard to take cues from what other people might be doing with them because it's hard to find their videos.
The only thing I bring them out for now is to make little cooking videos for my friends, the hands free POV camera is really good for that, and uploading a little narrative is pretty effortless.
I also agree that the product design is excellent. There is absolutely a polish to the Spectacles that makes them enjoyable to use.
We've continuously reduced the friction it takes to share experiences with one another, spectacles is another step in that direction.
Juicero was just an overengineered scam.
So that's what that yellow thing at the mall was! I thought it was some sort of bizarre Minions tie in for something.
Good lord please stop. Save that for marketing discussion places. I don't even know what this nonsense means, nor do I suspect most people.
- Extremely vague besides "push a button to record video".
- No mention of battery power, length of charge, app integration, quality of video, etc, etc.
- It seems to be only targeted at women? There's no pictures of men wearing them.
- What do the sides of the glasses look like? All pictures are the front angle. Does it look bulkier because it has a camera?
- I see a prominent "Find a Snapbot" button, I had no idea "Snapbot" meant pop-up store until I read about it in a news article.
I could go on...
The pictures are visually appealing but having zero sales copy was a terrible idea. How can you sell something without explaining it?
I too would have liked to see an Amazon link, I prefer using that over a custom online shop every time. And Amazon forces them to write an actual description about what the product does.
They literally go around Cannes and Madison Ave telling everyone they understand the future of marketing... but can't market their own product.
Speaks volumes.
Also, sometimes when watching other people's stories, I see Spectacles ads. Though, the Spectacles story might be tucked away by like, the Daily Mail and the other sponsored stories.
Most of the reviews on amazon are from men and most of those complain about the style or being too small, so clearly men were very motivated to buy this product.
I think there's a fundamental marketing mistake here with wearable cameras. Its not really going to appeal to sexy instagram addicts who can't selfie with them, but to busy parents and older people, especially those with limited mobility or inability to quickly pull out a smartphone. I think its obvious that those kinds of markets don't bring in SV money, so here we are pretending women actually want to buy and wear these ridiculous looking things all day. Sorry, but the huge graphics around the lens mar an otherwise tasteful design. Clearly the market chose against this concept.
I'm also skeptical an always facing camera, be it on glasses, wearable watch/pedant, etc will ever be socially acceptable. Apparently, the Google Glasses problem hasn't been solved yet and may not ever be solved in the consumer space.
>Snaps from Spectacles do not directly go to your phone. You can save Snaps taken with Spectacles to your phone by exporting them from Snapchat Memories to your Camera roll
Also the implementation sounds wonky. I'm guessing this is a iOS limitation? On Android you should be able to write directly to the camera folder.
Edit: Imagine if they would've had a male styled version, and tried to get Kanye West, or some other pop/style star wearing them.
Huge miss.
Sounds like it was a flop regardless, but I do think the 'techy dad' market is viable at the right pricepoint. Not sure how the social aspect would work out, but if it had a red LED running when it was recording I doubt anyone would mind.
Not even he is narcissistic enough to post the video up. I've never seen one video from the glasses.
Best I can tell he wears them as some kind of fashion statement in the weird and quirky SF gay tech scene.
> Snap revealed during its call following weak Q2 earnings that it generated $5.4 million in “Other” revenue, which would equate to around 41,500 pairs of its Spectacles camera sunglasses at a $130 price point. That’s compared to $8.3 million in Other revenue in Q1, or fewer than 64,000 pairs
I don't understand why companies feel they need to start selling average household products, but with cameras, microphones, wifi, and bluetooth. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't even like my laptop having a camera.
1. Allow more people to be tied in directly to snapchat and make users more loyal and provide a better experience.
2. Create a new revenue stream based on wearables.
3. A PR vehicle to drive more users into the platform.
I think it accomplished #3. It may be able to accomplish 1-2 but we should wait and see. Also, something like Spectacles probably need a price drop to drive more people to buy it and the fact that this wearable doesn't drive people to upgrade to new spectacles would be an issue also.
I bring my gopro on all my trips. Its a great way to record memories without using up your phone storage or battery. It's also easier to hold, has better FoV, and much better video quality. It's a no brainer. I'm surprised action cams have not hit mainstream as far as trip-devices go.
And why should the video quality be better? The samples I see on Youtube are ok but better?
Yes, you can fix an action cam to your helmet or surf board but this is the only feature a phone lacks.
1. Take video
2. Enable BT and WiFi on your smartphone
3. Open Snapchat on your smartphone
4. Wait for what seems like forever for the phone to find the Spectacles. Charging them in the case seems to help, as does charging the phone?
5. Wait for the phone to grab the low res version.
6. Wait for the phone to grab the "HD" version. (Note: this may (?) be automatic on iOS. I own an LG V20.)
7. Navigate through Snapchat's terrible interface to the video you want to save.
8. Save to your phone. You're done!
They come out as 800x800 videos that are circular, so the true resolution is (-21.4% vs square).
It was gimmicky, with no real-world use case, and "sold" as some kinda of geffen good that was only available in limited quantities.
Some anecdata: I have been traveling the U.S. for the last year, stopping in mostly major cities, and lived in Boston prior to that. In all that time I didn't see a single pair of Spectacles until last month... in Houston, TX of all places!
Something like $70 for a half square mile for a day on the geofence I drew in Santa Monica. It's $5 for an office building in downtown Austin for a day.
Their ui is really fun!
People spent hours carefully choosing their glasses. You won't be able to get everyone to buy the same design.
Spectacles is a disaster.
And before you downvote me, realize that basically, this is a gimmicky product, even if you think it is cool.
While you are allowed to film anyone in public, the act of having an "always pointing highly visible camera", will elicit more negative reactions than positive ones... So unless snap is pretty tone deaf, this was known to be a non long term product, more of a product to appease their top producer base.
