, Columnist
Snapchat's Glasses Are Way Too Rose-Colored
The company needs to solidify its core business before resuming a risky hardware venture.
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Snapchat's young founder, Evan Spiegel, proudly unveiled the company's newest product in late 2016: a pair of sunglasses with built-in cameras to shoot video clips of whatever the wearer was looking at. It was a clever idea, and Spiegel was predictably hyperbolic about his company's second big product, called Spectacles.
Initially, it seemed as if the $130 glasses would be a hit. The company for several months sold a limited number of them in adorable yellow vending machines placed at sometimes odd locations like the Grand Canyon. It was a marketing stunt designed to stoke maximum curiosity, and at first there was heavy media attention and bidding wars for the glasses.