Whatever Happened to Snap Spectacles?

Just one year ago, Snap Spectacles were the talk of the tech (and marketing) world. When they first came out, you could only get them from a traveling vending machine called a Snapbot that would pop up randomly across the U.S. Moving into 2017, Spectacles were the definition of buzz. For our part, we posted this article about them and recorded this podcast about them too.

So where are Snap Spectacles now? They are still available. In fact they are more available than ever. But like many trends, the rise came as quick as the fall, and it appears demand has cooled significantly. According to this Quartz article, “Snap is sitting on hundreds of thousands of unsold pairs of Spectacles”. That report was verified when Snap released its fiscal third quarter 2017 earnings report, which revealed Snap lost nearly $40 million on unsold Spectacles.

With some eyebrow-raising dips in Snap stock price, many are now wondering if Snapchat—like Spectacles—may have already reached peak popularity.