Snap’s New Spectacles Inch Closer To Compelling AR

The Verge’s Alex Heath reports: Snap’s fifth-generation Spectacles have a richer, more immersive display. Using them feels snappier. They weigh less than their predecessor and last longer on a charge. Those are exactly the kinds of upgrades you’d expect from a product line that’s technically eight years old. But the market for Spectacles — and AR glasses in general — still feels as nascent as ever. Snap has an idea for what could change that: developers. These new Spectacles, announced Tuesday at Snap’s annual Partner Summit in Los Angeles, aren’t being sold. Instead, Snap is repeating its playbook for the last version of Spectacles in 2021 and distributing them to the people who make AR lenses for Snapchat. This time around, though, there’s an extra hurdle: you have to apply for access through Lens Studio, the company’s desktop tool for creating AR software, and pay $1,188 to lease a pair for at least one year. (After a year, the subscription becomes $99 a month.)

Yes, Snap is asking developers to pay $1,188 to build software for hardware with no user base. Even still, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel believes the interest will be there. “Our goal is really to empower and inspire the developer and AR enthusiast communities,” he tells me. “This really is an invitation, and hopefully an inspiration, to create.” […] Ultimately, I’m skeptical of why developers will want to build software for Spectacles right now, given the lack of a market and the cost of getting access to a pair. Still, Spiegel believes enough of them are excited about the promise of AR glasses and that they’ll want to help shape that future. “I think it’s the same reason why developers were really excited with the early desktop computer or the reason why developers were really excited by the early smartphones,” he says. “I think this is a group of visionary technologists who are really excited about what the future holds.” Spiegel may be right. AR glasses may be the future, and Spectacles may be well-positioned to become the next major computing platform, even with competition heating up. But there’s still a lot of progress that needs to happen for Snap’s vision to become reality. Road to VR has a full list of specs embedded in their report. They also published a reveal trailer on YouTube.