Maybe the second time will be the charm for Snap’s Spectacles.
Snapchat’s parent company unveiled the 2.0 version of its camera-sunglasses on Thursday, complete with a series of product upgrades. The new Spectacles can now snap pictures, rather than just video, are water-proof, and captures everything in HD.
“We want Spectacles to be the simplest and easiest way to make memories from your point of view, and we appreciate all of your thoughtful feedback — many of these improvements were inspired by you!” Snap said in a blog announcement.
Remember those long lines of people queued up at Snapchat vending machines in the fall of 2016, waiting to get their hands on the first iteration of Spectacles? Those quickly faded, and won’t even be an option this time. Snap is selling its new glasses straight from Spectacles.com for $149.99.
Snap’s first jump into hardware didn’t go according to plan, with the company only selling a few hundred thousand pairs of Spectacles. Snap took a $40 million loss on Spectacles, the company announced last fall. CEO Evan Spiegel said Snap made the “wrong decision” in making too many pairs after its strong initial reception dried up.
But maybe the new version, with its changes, will catch on. Spectacles 2.0 will look to be more inconspicuous than their predecessor, with the new glasses not lighting up when they’re recording. The new glasses go on sale Thursday.