Augmented reality was touted by investment firm analysts and smart glass brands as the next big thing in eyewear. In 2015 a market prediction report by augmentedreality.org forecast that the ‘smart glasses market will soar towards 1bn shipments near the end of the decade.’
Last week, Snap Inc, the tech firm behind video recording social media eyewear product, Spectacles, reported it had lost $40m (£30m) on the venture. In the 12 months that the £/$ 129.99 device was on sale, it sold 150,000 units worldwide and has now lumbered Snap with unsold and unassembled stock reserves of around 300,000.
Spectacles now joins Google Glass in the smart eyewear venture failure pile. But what went wrong for the ‘social media sunglass’? According to a report on technology industry news website, The Information, internal data from Snap showed only half of buyers used the device for longer than a month and a sizable percentage cast the device to one side after just a week.
The lack of retention among users could be attributed to failure to capitalise on hype. Snap launched Spectacles in September 2016 via a network of vending machines that appeared unannounced in US cities. This helped exclusivity in the early stages, but a five-month delay in making the product more widely available meant potential buyers had already moved on to another desirable product – and it probably was not eyewear related.
Social media and its fast-moving nature was another factor that went against Spectacles. At the time of its launch, the video recording glasses had little in terms of competition from other platforms. Instagram’s Stories was still in its infancy but quickly grew and eclipsed Snapchat in the overall number of users. This may not have been such a crucial factor had Spectacles not used its own proprietary video recording format, but when exporting from Snapchat, users were presented with a large border around a circular content window that was not very pleasing to the eye.
‘I have always considered Snapchat’s Spectacles nothing more than an expensive novelty item,’ said Forgan. ‘At £130 per pair how could they be anything other than a failure? They bear no relation at all to true “smart” glasses.
‘Smart glasses are all about the ability to transmit and receive information while keeping your hands free and I believe Apple’s reported plans to launch a consumer smart glass product by 2019 will be a real game changer.’
The failures of Google Glass and Snap Spectacles are both similar in that neither product considered the professional eye care sector to any great extent. This was of particular detriment to Google Glass, where the attempt to work with opticians came too late for any meaningful partnerships. It was left to Rochester Optical to provide an Rx solution for Google Glass in 2014, with Google following nearly a year later. By then, Google Glass’ popularity was dwindling.
Even a strategic partnership between Google and Luxottica for the development of smart eyewear products on the Glass platform could not rescue the venture. Then CEO, Andrea Guerra, said: ‘We believe that a strategic partnership with a leading player like Google is the ideal platform for developing a new way forward in our industry and answering the evolving needs of consumers on a global scale. We believe it is high time to combine the unique expertise, deep knowledge and quality of our group with the cutting-edge technology expertise of Google and give birth to a new generation of revolutionary devices.’
The ill-fated Snap Spectacles
Guerra left Luxottica shortly after, with media reports at the time suggesting he had fallen out with Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio over the agreement with Google. Del Vecchio did not help the relationship after some choice comments on Google Glass during an interview with Financial Times. ‘I have not used Google Glass. It would embarrass me going around with that on my face. It would be OK in the disco, but I no longer go to the disco,’ he said.
While Google may have pulled the plug on the consumer version of Glass, the device has started to find its feet within enterprise settings, which should provide a better testing phase for if and when another consumer version breaks cover.
Logistics provider DHL was one of the companies using Glass Enterprise. Order picking has been transformed, with staff freed from using paper instructions. ‘Vision Picking’ allows the employee to receive picking instructions directly to the display on the Glass device. According to DHL, this makes the process of moving parcels more efficient and comfortable for staff, who can use the scanning function to notify company software of waypoints within the supply chain.
A smart future
Google and Snap’s efforts in smart eyewear have shown just how tricky this part of the wearable tech sector is going to be. Google may be holding its own within the warehouses, but what does the future hold for consumers?
‘Worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market are growing dramatically,’ said Forgan, but he also warned that future iterations will have to be fashionable and functional if they are going to have mass market appeal.
‘The main barriers are the restrictive size of batteries, circuitry not being small enough and quality of the display technology at present. Zeiss has an interesting concept for a display built into a lens but it is still some years away.
‘I’d expect the advent of 5G communications to be the time when there is a heavy investment in this area and so you will start to see some interesting products on the market in 2020. However, it will be a few more years after that until we are all wearing smart glasses.
‘If Ladbrokes were to take my bet, I’d say by 2030 you will more likely be buying eyewear which has some smart function than not.’