Snap Inc the company behind the social-messaging app; Snapchat, has announced a new iteration of its video-recording sunglasses dubbed Spectacles 3.
This is a followup on the debut device, released in 2016 and sold over 200 000 pairs.
Spectacles 3 allows users to record with two cameras instead of one, and have a steel wire frame rather than the chunkier plastic of previous models. Priced at almost R6000,00 a pair, the new glasses are almost double the price of the previous versions. Snap Inc announced that the glasses are available for pre-order with delivery expected later this year.
Why video-recording sunglasses you asked, according to a Snap spokesman the latest Spectacles are meant “to draw our community closer to a future in which computing is overlaid on the world, rather than confined to a small screen.” This is Snap’s attempts at leading the augmented reality (AR) path.
However, Snap Inc has its work cut out, as it attempts to lead the pack; Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. have similar projects. Microsoft Corp. sells an AR headset called Hololens.
Google launched Glass internet-connected eyewear in 2013, but it flopped as a consumer product.
For AR to reach the promised land; of blending the digital and physical worlds, the hardware that will power that experience is key. Whoever gets the hardware right, wins in the big technology wave.
We miss you, Ta Steve Jobs.