I think this is brilliant. Even the press details seem perfectly crafted, with one article referencing Evan's "supermodel girlfriend."
Snapchat can win here based on brand alone. The hardware features are a plus, but they're going to sell a lifestyle. Think GoPro + Versace. Commenters here are caught up in the tech. It's not the tech. Get a few celebrities in these, people will buy them and barely use the recording features. They're cheaper than Ray-Bans and I bet you and half of your friends own a pair of those.
Snapchat can assemble an AR powerhouse from the ground up with brand goodwill. Evan and his team have figured out the best market strategy to do so. Google is not "cool" and could never attempt to pull this off.
I have tremendous respect for Evan Spiegel right now. Bold move. Amazingly positioned. I wish them the best of luck. Dare I say, it has the scent of Jobs to it - the vision, the risk ("we make sunglasses now!") and definitely the "cool-factor." Don't misinterpret - this isn't the iPhone, not yet anyway, but I think they're on to something very big.
This product is about branding. But not about SnapChat's branding. And at $129/pop, certainly not about Versace's either. Branding is about putting the innate and immutable truth about the product in the forefront.
What is the immutable truth about Spectacles? To get there, we will take my obligatory tour of the immutable truth about "Glass". Glass started out as evil empire all the way. Visually, Glass looks the headgear the Cardassian Commanders wore while fighting side-by-side with other races in The Dominion. Got that? The Evilest of Evil Empires. Add to that, the subtle design aspects that tried to make Glass as invisible as possible to passersby. Though noticeable to the trained eye, Glass was certainly not prominent in the visual hierarchy of the average person. And if you were in the room with someone wearing Glass, you never knew if they were recording you. Glass is covert and voyeuristic, and that's what people hated about Glass.
So, back to what the "Spectacles" brand is. It's basis is in fun. A serious design effort to make them look fashionable. Perhaps not everyone's taste, but you can tell they didn't use a stock frame out of the catalog of a Chinese sunglass factory. Combine the shape with some goofy (or "ironic" in hipster parlance) color/pattern options, Spectacles come off as an every day stylish person's accessory. Add to that, the LEDs around the camera light up when recording, so you know when the wearer has chosen to record. They are right out in the open with their intent, not slithering around in the shadows like some Glasshole.
He is like Jobs in the sense that he didn't invent Snapchat and he didn't code it. Maybe he articulated the philosophy of it being an anti-Kodak moment app.
The article quotes someone saying Evan's the "best product visionary" they had ever met. Give a smart kid a hot app, millions in funding and thus more smart minds, and great things can happen. But let's not overly romanticize it.
I am impressed by Snapchat's evolution, Stories etc but all that is somewhat obvious iterations on someone else's initial idea.
Snapchat is fun and sexy for a variety of reasons, none of which correlate well with people wearing clunky glasses. Spectacles aren't cool and won't be. It's a head-mounted camera. It needs to be more sleek, more expensive, and have some novel features to be considered a status symbol.
Hey Amy - just a couple of rando thoughts from 35,000 LAX-JFK:
- A rising trend we see with Millennials are the really extreme forms of experiential exercise like Tough Mudder (a sort of filthy triathalon), the Color Run and even things like Hot Power Yoga, veganism etc. Millennials will often post “N.B.D.” on their social media after doing it , as in No Big Deal, also known as the “humble brag”.....wondering if Spidey could get into that in some way....he’s super athletic, bendy, strong, intense....and it’s all NBD to him, of course.
- EDM (electronic dance music) is the defining music for Millennials. Wondering if there’s an EDM angle somewhere with Spidey? His movements are beautiful, would be awesome with a killer DJ behind it
- Snapchat just launched a “story” functionality, which is sort of “day in the life of me” told in a series of snapchats that expire after 24 hours. It has a very VIP quality about it, since invitation only. Getting invited into Spidey’s Snapchat circle would be huge, and very buzzworthy and cool.
You're essentially saying that if Evan Spiegel had released Google Glass, it would have been successful because Evan is cool and Google is not. First, Evan isn't that cool - he tried to cut out and leave penniless his frat brother that actually came up with the idea for Snapchat [1]. While that may be a Jobs or Zuckerberg-type move, it certainly doesn't make him cool.
Second, Glass failed largely because of the invasive techno-snob feel to it - something that Spectacles has not overcome. It's one thing to have an iPhone in your pocket; it's quite another to shove your camera and microphone enabled face computer into the lives of literally everyone you interact with.
Take a long, deep breath. Then take a few steps backwards, so you can take the scene in with a slightly broader perspective. Now hark back to how many times someone has been breathlessly been compared to Steve Jobs and how many times the person who has made that comparison has ended up looking silly. Let's give Evan a few years before we start fanboying him.
Not sure how it's brilliant. Secondly, it still suffers from that fact that literally everyone is creeped out by a rando staring at them with two cameras. At least a phone is halfway obvious when in use.
I think this is significantly better than what Google did with Google Glass.
It's better because it focuses on the one thing that is really easy to do well. It does not try to do everything at once. It doesn't try to give you apps in your glasses and everything under the sun. This is the right approach to products. Do one thing but do that well.
Before you criticize me think back to the original iPhone, it didn't start with an App Store and everything under the sun like the iwatch did. And yet the iPhone is an icon and the watch is no big deal.
It also doesn't look nearly as dorky as Google Glass did. Google Glass had the problem where it was trying to be an all-purpose life-enhancing thing that people would wear all the time, so it was trying to be both invisible and distinctive. This doesn't need to pretend to be something that you can forget you're wearing or something that you can pair with any type of outfit -- it has a strong sense of style, and it's easier to work cameras into a design that is loud than a design that is quiet.
Don't buy this do one thing and well for a second.
Using your own example:
Before the iPhone, you had seperate:
GPS
Camera
Flashlight
MP3 Player
and many other things
With the iPhone, you got all of these and a nice compact package that you could carry with you at all times. Thats not to say feature creep can't be a problem, but more that sticking to hard and fast rules like 'do one thing but do that well' is largely an oversimplification of the world to make the world more comprehendible to those that don't want to look at the real nuance of products/markets etc.
I disagree. It's better because the marketing doesn't suggest that it's anything more than a toy. There's no expectation that you're going to reorient your lifestyle around the Spectacles, but it was implied that you would be filming your entire life 24/7 with Google Glass.
As a productivity device it's weak, but as a toy it looks pretty fun and I'm amazed at the sea of people screaming about what a stupid idea it is and how it'll never catch on. If I had disposable income I could certainly see myself buying one and playing with it.
Of course, Glass took significant heat over the fact that it had a camera that you can record people without them knowing (except that it was quite obvious when Glass was 'on'). This thing appeals to have two cameras, and given that it just does video recording, it might be able to be on significantly longer.
I wonder if it has any privacy safeguards, like a red led indicating recording in progress?
What happened to google glass is textbook: Exec walks into R&D lab and falls in love with alpha stage project, utters the words: we should release this to the public, stat! and failure ensues.
Glass as a AR demonstrator is doing quite well as a beta product for enterprise. Augmedix comes to mind.
Hype and grumbles aside, I believe optimizing the "I want to record what I'm seeing right now" to a tap near your temple is pretty compelling. Fumbling to get my camera out of my pocket, or even just grab from tabletop and swipe-to-cam is often long enough to miss that precious moment with my daughter.
Why? You need to seriously question the motives behind such a launch. IMHO:
[1]Snapshot is an online multimedia application.
[2]The infrastructure required to move from online to hardware requires significant investment (beyond the $1.8B they recently raised) - that of which I don't believe Snapchat can fund without a serious re-monetiziation strategy beyond Ads. It is only a matter of time before FB makes the move into Snapchat's market more than they already are.
[3]This is an unproven market. Google tried it and didn't succeed. A better play - let someone else test the market a bit more and then move in with a solid Ad monetization strategy around the Spectacles.
[4]Why Hardware?! Seriously? I believe Evan is overplaying his hands with so much VC capital coming his way.
Even thought I'm not "inb4" Glass comparisons this really does hit a market that I think is untapped. I used to have a "flipcam". It was before I had a phone with the ability to take HD video and before a GoPro was a choice for me because of cost (I still don't have a GoPro).
The ability to have cheaper, stylish, handsfree video recording of my POV has a lot of potential. How-to videos, the "capturing memories" as noted in the article, even just easily recording benign life experiences (police stops, for instance) seamlessly and without hassle is huge.
I do hope there is a tattletale light or something so that the average user can't surreptitiously record things and otherwise easy privacy controls... and I hope it's not long before someone hacks this or they unlock the product to do more than 10 second clips...
If I were GoPro I'd be nervous.
Edit: Actually a second thought- this would be a lot better than body cams in a lot of situations (or certainly a good companion) because it would capture the officer's line of sight.
Just like Google Glass users being called Glassholes, SnapChat glasses will probably be called something like SnapChads, because only white rich guys in pastel shorts and rugby shirts named Chad will use them. The aesthetic just isn't there for wide adoption.
Being someone in the AR space, I find this a smart but risky move. If they're marked right and become "cool" I'll definitely have to cop a pair (and at $130 they're almost disposable). Spectacles will make it way easier for me to post to Snapchat at parties/concerts/etc without having to break out of the moment by taking my phone out. Strategy-wise, this is a Trojan horse into the AR hardware space, which Evan has wanted to get into for years. However, they fit way better into Snap's image of being a media company vs. directly launching an AR headset.
Looks like they have learned from the glasshole debacle.
1). The messaging emphasizes it's just "a toy", a low volume experiment. More playful and more humble approach makes it a smaller target for ridicule.
2.) Pricing at $149 also makes it less pretentious and more importantly, puts it in the discretionary income range of what the heck I'll give it a shot.
If this means I can go to a public performance and no longer have to try to look past the sea of upthrust arms and glare of 1000 brightly lit screens to see what I came to see then it can't come quickly enough!
Particularly since I feel it will inspire the next product which is an IR flood light that renders all digital cameras useless, since there are so many people oblivious to the fact by trying to capture the experience for themselves they're detracting from the experience for everyone else.
Letting people who need a digital memento silently get one without intruding on the experience of those of us just there to enjoy and be in the moment is a great compromise.
Good cameras (well, practically every camera now) come with IR-cutoff filter, so the IR light to "blind" the cameras would be pretty much useless.
And the IR-filter is actually a problem for those of us who like astrophotography and have to resort to modding or (expensive) special editions of cameras.
Another huge innovation which is more about software than hardware is the new circular video format: you can rotate your phone and the video keeps its orientation.
> (Spiegel argues that rectangles are an unnecessary vestige of printing photos on sheets of paper.)
It's also the shape of nearly all screens in the world. Perhaps I'm not visionary enough, but I don't foresee a circular computer or phone screen really improving the current situation...
Snapchat has a huge opportunity in its hand which it has limited to take full advantage of: starting a revenue share program with influencers on the platform. Facebook has yet to do it and Snapchat, which is strapped with VC dollars, can attract a lot more influencers to its platform. I think the companies on the Discover are already in some sort of revenue sharing agreement with Snapchat but brining this to the massive number of young influencers unlocks huge opportunities for Snapchat.
I'm amazed the top-rated top-level comments are all so positive. We have enough people shoving cameras into devices and situations where they don't belong. At least we know what they look like now so we can ostracize anyone wearing them.
Well I'll be completely straight and say this isn't anything new. (You've been able to buy similar video glasses from china for about 5 years now) but if it can properly integrate with the app, and slim down a LOT more. To the point the camera is unnoticeable - they could finally start making some money. Well, until the Chinese knockoffs start rolling in
For those wondering wtf are these, I don't like the styling, why do these exist...etc, well, i don't think the target market for these is hacker news viewers. I will say that they do look awesome. Way easier to use these than a go pro or hold a camera/phone. Hopefully it's not just locked down to Snapchat.
[+] [-] keithwhor|9 years ago|reply
Snapchat can win here based on brand alone. The hardware features are a plus, but they're going to sell a lifestyle. Think GoPro + Versace. Commenters here are caught up in the tech. It's not the tech. Get a few celebrities in these, people will buy them and barely use the recording features. They're cheaper than Ray-Bans and I bet you and half of your friends own a pair of those.
Snapchat can assemble an AR powerhouse from the ground up with brand goodwill. Evan and his team have figured out the best market strategy to do so. Google is not "cool" and could never attempt to pull this off.
I have tremendous respect for Evan Spiegel right now. Bold move. Amazingly positioned. I wish them the best of luck. Dare I say, it has the scent of Jobs to it - the vision, the risk ("we make sunglasses now!") and definitely the "cool-factor." Don't misinterpret - this isn't the iPhone, not yet anyway, but I think they're on to something very big.
[+] [-] CodeWriter23|9 years ago|reply
What is the immutable truth about Spectacles? To get there, we will take my obligatory tour of the immutable truth about "Glass". Glass started out as evil empire all the way. Visually, Glass looks the headgear the Cardassian Commanders wore while fighting side-by-side with other races in The Dominion. Got that? The Evilest of Evil Empires. Add to that, the subtle design aspects that tried to make Glass as invisible as possible to passersby. Though noticeable to the trained eye, Glass was certainly not prominent in the visual hierarchy of the average person. And if you were in the room with someone wearing Glass, you never knew if they were recording you. Glass is covert and voyeuristic, and that's what people hated about Glass.
So, back to what the "Spectacles" brand is. It's basis is in fun. A serious design effort to make them look fashionable. Perhaps not everyone's taste, but you can tell they didn't use a stock frame out of the catalog of a Chinese sunglass factory. Combine the shape with some goofy (or "ironic" in hipster parlance) color/pattern options, Spectacles come off as an every day stylish person's accessory. Add to that, the LEDs around the camera light up when recording, so you know when the wearer has chosen to record. They are right out in the open with their intent, not slithering around in the shadows like some Glasshole.
[+] [-] engx|9 years ago|reply
The article quotes someone saying Evan's the "best product visionary" they had ever met. Give a smart kid a hot app, millions in funding and thus more smart minds, and great things can happen. But let's not overly romanticize it.
I am impressed by Snapchat's evolution, Stories etc but all that is somewhat obvious iterations on someone else's initial idea.
Snapchat is fun and sexy for a variety of reasons, none of which correlate well with people wearing clunky glasses. Spectacles aren't cool and won't be. It's a head-mounted camera. It needs to be more sleek, more expensive, and have some novel features to be considered a status symbol.
[+] [-] RodericDay|9 years ago|reply
Hey Amy - just a couple of rando thoughts from 35,000 LAX-JFK:
- A rising trend we see with Millennials are the really extreme forms of experiential exercise like Tough Mudder (a sort of filthy triathalon), the Color Run and even things like Hot Power Yoga, veganism etc. Millennials will often post “N.B.D.” on their social media after doing it , as in No Big Deal, also known as the “humble brag”.....wondering if Spidey could get into that in some way....he’s super athletic, bendy, strong, intense....and it’s all NBD to him, of course.
- EDM (electronic dance music) is the defining music for Millennials. Wondering if there’s an EDM angle somewhere with Spidey? His movements are beautiful, would be awesome with a killer DJ behind it
- Snapchat just launched a “story” functionality, which is sort of “day in the life of me” told in a series of snapchats that expire after 24 hours. It has a very VIP quality about it, since invitation only. Getting invited into Spidey’s Snapchat circle would be huge, and very buzzworthy and cool.
http://www.avclub.com/article/spider-man-should-be-snapchatt...
[+] [-] downandout|9 years ago|reply
Second, Glass failed largely because of the invasive techno-snob feel to it - something that Spectacles has not overcome. It's one thing to have an iPhone in your pocket; it's quite another to shove your camera and microphone enabled face computer into the lives of literally everyone you interact with.
[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-lawsuit-video-deposi...
[+] [-] mhomde|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lazzlazzlazz|9 years ago|reply
This is not even remotely "Versace" - it can't possibly be.
Imagine pimply-faced teen nerds wearing these.
They will not even attempt to go for a "luxury" / "high-end" feel. Snapchat is not even remotely Apple.
Relax for a moment and come out of your fantasy.
[+] [-] smokeyj|9 years ago|reply
Remind me to read this in a year. Or a week.
[+] [-] flohofwoe|9 years ago|reply
Also, that 'thing' looks even more ridiculous then Google Glass.
[+] [-] n72|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ellisdewalt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] whitecarpet|9 years ago|reply
Edit: Thanks for the downvote.
[+] [-] primigenus|9 years ago|reply
Of _course_ they're sunglasses.
Of _course_ it's focused completely on video.
Of _course_ it's marketed as being about sharing your memories as you lived them.
Of _course_ you can only record 10 second videos at a time.
Of _course_ snaps automatically sync to the app.
Of _course_ they're designed to appeal to young fashionable people.
Of _course_ the charge lasts all day
This is one of those things where once you see it it's just obvious this is what it was supposed to be all along.
[+] [-] hiou|9 years ago|reply
If you don't know what your product is for, your customer is unlikely to figure it out for you.
[+] [-] GabrielF00|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nappy|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] binarymax|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fowlerpower|9 years ago|reply
It's better because it focuses on the one thing that is really easy to do well. It does not try to do everything at once. It doesn't try to give you apps in your glasses and everything under the sun. This is the right approach to products. Do one thing but do that well.
Before you criticize me think back to the original iPhone, it didn't start with an App Store and everything under the sun like the iwatch did. And yet the iPhone is an icon and the watch is no big deal.
[+] [-] potatoyogurt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmritard96|9 years ago|reply
Using your own example:
Before the iPhone, you had seperate: GPS Camera Flashlight MP3 Player and many other things
With the iPhone, you got all of these and a nice compact package that you could carry with you at all times. Thats not to say feature creep can't be a problem, but more that sticking to hard and fast rules like 'do one thing but do that well' is largely an oversimplification of the world to make the world more comprehendible to those that don't want to look at the real nuance of products/markets etc.
[+] [-] unimpressive|9 years ago|reply
As a productivity device it's weak, but as a toy it looks pretty fun and I'm amazed at the sea of people screaming about what a stupid idea it is and how it'll never catch on. If I had disposable income I could certainly see myself buying one and playing with it.
[+] [-] cromwellian|9 years ago|reply
I wonder if it has any privacy safeguards, like a red led indicating recording in progress?
[+] [-] megablast|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nanite|9 years ago|reply
Glass as a AR demonstrator is doing quite well as a beta product for enterprise. Augmedix comes to mind.
[+] [-] Retra|9 years ago|reply
Which thing is that? Being a camera, or being a pair of sunglasses?
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] CodeWriter23|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdmsr|9 years ago|reply
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_Eyewear
[+] [-] ftrflyr|9 years ago|reply
[1]Snapshot is an online multimedia application. [2]The infrastructure required to move from online to hardware requires significant investment (beyond the $1.8B they recently raised) - that of which I don't believe Snapchat can fund without a serious re-monetiziation strategy beyond Ads. It is only a matter of time before FB makes the move into Snapchat's market more than they already are. [3]This is an unproven market. Google tried it and didn't succeed. A better play - let someone else test the market a bit more and then move in with a solid Ad monetization strategy around the Spectacles. [4]Why Hardware?! Seriously? I believe Evan is overplaying his hands with so much VC capital coming his way.
[+] [-] leetrout|9 years ago|reply
The ability to have cheaper, stylish, handsfree video recording of my POV has a lot of potential. How-to videos, the "capturing memories" as noted in the article, even just easily recording benign life experiences (police stops, for instance) seamlessly and without hassle is huge.
I do hope there is a tattletale light or something so that the average user can't surreptitiously record things and otherwise easy privacy controls... and I hope it's not long before someone hacks this or they unlock the product to do more than 10 second clips...
If I were GoPro I'd be nervous.
Edit: Actually a second thought- this would be a lot better than body cams in a lot of situations (or certainly a good companion) because it would capture the officer's line of sight.
[+] [-] emilburzo|9 years ago|reply
Yeah... no.
I wouldn't skydive with those glasses.
Though "gopro for the rest of us" would be a good tagline.
The rest of your post is pretty spot on.
[+] [-] mgiannopoulos|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orbitingpluto|9 years ago|reply
Just like Google Glass users being called Glassholes, SnapChat glasses will probably be called something like SnapChads, because only white rich guys in pastel shorts and rugby shirts named Chad will use them. The aesthetic just isn't there for wide adoption.
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] josephpmay|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WhitneyLand|9 years ago|reply
1). The messaging emphasizes it's just "a toy", a low volume experiment. More playful and more humble approach makes it a smaller target for ridicule.
2.) Pricing at $149 also makes it less pretentious and more importantly, puts it in the discretionary income range of what the heck I'll give it a shot.
[+] [-] msabalau|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] technofiend|9 years ago|reply
Particularly since I feel it will inspire the next product which is an IR flood light that renders all digital cameras useless, since there are so many people oblivious to the fact by trying to capture the experience for themselves they're detracting from the experience for everyone else.
Letting people who need a digital memento silently get one without intruding on the experience of those of us just there to enjoy and be in the moment is a great compromise.
[+] [-] dr_zoidberg|9 years ago|reply
And the IR-filter is actually a problem for those of us who like astrophotography and have to resort to modding or (expensive) special editions of cameras.
[+] [-] whitecarpet|9 years ago|reply
Quite impressive, you have to see it in action:
https://twitter.com/ow/status/779592486461313025
[+] [-] arcticfox|9 years ago|reply
It's also the shape of nearly all screens in the world. Perhaps I'm not visionary enough, but I don't foresee a circular computer or phone screen really improving the current situation...
[+] [-] slackoverflower|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omarchowdhury|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nitrogen|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bunkydoo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cobookman|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k_sh|9 years ago|reply
The way they framed this product is _so_ refreshing.
[+] [-] nvr219|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nappy|9 years ago|reply