Spectacles. Image: Snap
The latest AR glasses by Snap come with various upgrades and a sleek design, but developers have to commit to a one-year subscription of nearly $1,200 to get access.
Snap has revealed its next attempt to break into the augmented reality (AR) sector, with a snappy new pair of Spectacles glasses.
The social media company said these new AR glasses are the result of a decade of research and development. The glasses are quite light compared to other contenders on the market, weighing only 226g.
Like many other tech developments in recent years, AI is inevitably also a key upgrade in these glasses. Snap said it plans to bring multiple cloud-hosted multimodal AI models to Spectacles through a new partnership with OpenAI.
“Soon, this will help developers bring new models to their Spectacles experiences to provide more context about what you see, say or hear,” Snap said.
Various reviews are speaking positively about these Spectacles – The Verge says the glasses have a richer display and last longer on a charge. But the drawbacks may be in their accessibility and their price tag.
These Spectacles are currently only available to developers, who must pay $99 a month for one full year to gain access to these AR glasses – a commitment of nearly $1,200.
Snap has been trying to gain more control in the AR market for years – the company was reportedly looking at every AR start-up it could find for acquisitions in 2016. The company revealed its first iteration of Spectacles that same year.
In 2022, Snap acquired Paris-based NextMind to support its AR research efforts. But while Snap is pushing its AR developments, its core business has been struggling. The company shares fell by more than 20pc after the company reported underwhelming quarterly results last month.
Meanwhile, competition is stiff in the augmented and mixed reality sector. Meta is offering its latest Quest 3 headsets at a starting cost of $499.99. Apple also revealed its own mixed-reality headset called the Vision Pro, though this comes at a much steeper cost at $3,499.
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