In focus: Eyewear trend has had a couple of false smarts

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.