Eyewear

A few weeks ago Snapchat announced that the company was going to transition from simply being an app/service to a technology company. The first part of the transition was rebranding the company as Snap and the second part was the introduction a new piece of wearable tech. The company’s first foray into the wearable space is a pair of glasses, simply called Spectacles. Think of them as something in between Google Glass and a life-blogging device, neither of which have faired very well in the market place. The failure of both of those devices likely has something to do with them being wearable recorders, which they also have in common with Spectacles. When we originally saw the announcement of Snapchat’s Spectacles, to us they seemed more like a gag product than something people would actually wait in line to spend $130 on. But apparently we were very wrong. Last week popup vending machines featuring the Spectacles, called Snapbots, began appearing, drawing tremendous lines. We never would have guessed it but Snap’s Spectacles seem to be a hit, for at least the 6 days out from launch. In fact, the connected glasses are reselling for as much as $5000 on eBay. But what exactly are they?