Snap’s Spectacles sunglasses may prove to be more of a fad than a must-have device. Snap revealed during its call following weak Q2 earnings that it generated $5.4 million in “Other” revenue, which would equate to around 41,500 pairs of its Spectacles camera sunglasses at a $130 price point. That’s compared to $8.3 million in Other revenue in Q1, or fewer than 64,000 pairs, meaning Spectacles sales have declined roughly 35 percent.
Snap recently began selling Spectacles on Amazon and in other companies’ retail stores, like Harrod’s, but those sales won’t show up til Q3 earnings. Snap did start selling Spectacles online and through its Snapbot vending machines in Europe for the first time back in June. That means the 41,500 number may have been propped up by this expansion, and sales in the U.S. may have slipped further.
Snap may either need a radically different, AR-equipped version 2 of Spectacles to reinvigorate interest, or it may need to look to other cameras to sell. It recently acquired Zero Robotics, a Chinese maker of the Hover selfie drone, for between $150 million and $200 million. Sources told TechCrunch today that the deal is complete. But more potential may lie in a camera people can fit in their pockets, like a 360 camera.
How can Snap dig itself out of this hole? Check out our list: 8 ways to fix Snapchat
Josh Constine is a Venture Partner at ~$3 billion AUM early-stage VC fund SignalFire where he invests in pre-seed startups with a focus on consumer. He teaches startup pitch writing and fundraising strategy as a recurring lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School Of Business, and with accelerators like Z Fellows, Inception Studios, and Stanford ASES. Previously, Constine was Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch where he wrote 4000 articles and was ranked the #1 most cited tech journalist in the world from 2016-2020 by Techmeme. Constine has led 300+ on-stage interviews and keynotes in 18 countries with luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Shopify, DoorDash, Snapchat, Instagram, and more. Constine graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree he designed in Cybersociology, and wrote his thesis in 2008 on why remixable memes would be the future of marketing. He has been quoted in the NYT and WSJ, is regularly featured on CNN for his thoughts on AI and Silicon Valley, and advises startups on PR, fundraising, and organic growth.