It's been almost ten years now since Snap entered the smart glasses market, first with Spectacles equipped with a camera. These modest beginnings, but which allowed the company to gain experience and know-how that allowed it to follow up with prototypes of much more ambitious Spectacles equipped with transparent screens.
Snap as a pioneer
Last year, Snap launched augmented reality Spectacles models intended for developers. It's time to move on to the next step, announced CEO Evan Spiegel during a conference dedicated to this technology. And the next step is a model for the general public! These glasses are announced as lightweight and thinner than the developer version, which we were able to test at the beginning of the year:
Technical details are almost non-existent, and for good reason: the device is still in development, the launch is not expected before next year. But The Verge was able to confirm that the new Spectacles — renamed Specs — will have a wider field of vision… and that they will cost less than a Vision Pro (€4,000)! On the other hand, we should expect a steeper price tag than the approximately €330 of the Ray-Ban and Meta glasses. Snap is promising "an ultra-powerful portable computer integrated into a pair of lightweight glasses with transparent lenses."
Snap, which has sunk $3 billion into this venture (which is small compared to Meta), plans to rely on its developer community to build buzz around the possibilities of these Specs. More than 400,000 developers have already designed effects and more than 4 million Lenses for Snapchat, which adapt very well to AR glasses. Not to mention the apps developed for current Spectacles.
But if the market is non-existent today, by next year it should have several major players. Meta, of course, is preparing glasses with an integrated screen, but Google is not far behind either with Android XR and several partners. Even Apple would be on board…
Source: The Verge
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