Companies and Brands

Are Snapchat Spectacles Like Google Glass?

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: September 24, 2016 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:13 am

Google Glass was one of the search division of Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) greatest failures. Yet, company after company tries to arm wrestle its way into portable devices in which movable cameras capture video. Google Glass was more than that with its smartphone features, but video was at the heart of the product. Snapchat has decided that its first hardware business should be portable video capture as well, via a product it calls Spectacles.

A Snapchat official told Bloomberg that the price for the product would be $129.99, and:

Spectacles will come in one size and three colors. The wearer can tap a button near the hinge to record video of up to 10 seconds using the wide-angle lens on the glasses.

Snapchat also posted a video of the product on YouTube.

Snapchat is entering a market that other companies know intimately. The video in motion camera is GoPro Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GRPO) only major business. It offers drones with cameras, and attachments that make some of its products head-mounted cameras — not glasses, but almost.

And other large companies are in the business too, though not as visibly. Huge South Korean electronics company LG makes similar products. So does China’s Xiaomi.

Finally, there is the mobile video capture product almost everyone has, one of the tens of millions of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhones.