New details emerging from The Information gives us a glimpse into just how bad of a flop the Snapchat Spectacles have turned out to be.
According to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Spectacle sales eclipsed 150,000, well exceeding their initial goal of 100,000. Investors may have been impressed at first, but the popularity of the glasses has steadily declined since their release.
The initial craze regarding the Spectacles could be attributed to their marketing strategy, releasing the product via select vending machines. This created a rush to grab the glasses, but now that the excitement is over it doesn’t look so good. Snap’s internal data showed that well under half of Spectacles owners continued to use the camera-equipped sunglasses after just four weeks, according to Business Insider.
The effect of a massive drop in interest in the Spectacles could be drastic for Snap. Sources within the company say hundreds of thousands of glasses sit in Chinese warehouses. It seems the original craze led Snap executives to order the production of many more Spectacles – but the problem is nobody is buying them.
Snapchat innovation is definitely worth praising, but their attempt to branch into hardware has certainly taken a hit. The division responsible for hardware recently fired a dozen workers and put a new executive in charge, so the lack of success is quite evident.
Snap hasn’t spoken publicly about these leaks, but if you were looking to invest in technology, you might want to consider looking elsewhere.
