Snap Plans Fancier $350 AR-Equipped Spectacles For Launch This Year

Snap Inc. wants its wearable cameras to be a big deal, and it keeps refining the design to make them more appealing to consumers. So far, the existing Snap Spectacles haven't exactly taken off with respect to sales. Two new Spectacles unveiled in September were essentially the same as the brightly colored and strange looking original Spectacles from 2016 in sleeker frames. 

Snap Inc. is reportedly set to launch another Spectacles style by the end of 2018 with new tech crammed inside. Reports claim that the new Spectacles are known internally as Newport, and will feature an all-new design that has a premium frame made of aluminum. So far, all versions of Spectacles have used plastic frames. The significant feature of these new spectacles will be the inclusion of new cameras.

Those new cameras are tipped to add augmented reality effects in videos. When the user is wearing these new Spectacles, the Snapchat app can add 3D photo effects to the footage taken with the cameras. Reports indicate that this is the latest attempt by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel to make good on his vision of designing glasses that can overlay virtual objects onto the real world. The caveat with the new Spectacles is that the price will be much higher at around $350. The Nico and Veronica Spectacles that launched in September each sold for $199.

Snap took a beating on its original Spectacles, racking up a loss of $40 million due to unsold inventory. The company ordered 800,000 units of those original Spectacles from its Chinese supplier, but only sold 150,000 units. Snap has ordered 24,000 units of the new AR spectacles according to reports.