By Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni
June 16 (Reuters) - Snap on Tuesday launched its first augmented-reality glasses for consumers at a hefty price of $2,195, pitching the device as the future of how people interact with technology in the AI age.
Unveiled at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California, Specs mark a major bet by the social media minnow in a device category that even Apple has struggled to turn into a hit with its Vision Pro headset.
The launch comes at a critical moment for Snap,
whose ad business is under pressure from larger rivals. An activist investor has also demanded it spin off or shut down the cash-burning Specs unit after more than $3.5 billion in investment.
Growing concerns about smartphones' impact on mental health and advancements in AI have spawned a wave of products that aim to dethrone phones as the central gadget in daily life.
Among the more successful are Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses, whose top model has only a small display for text and navigation prompts and lacks full augmented reality — technology that overlays digital content onto a user's real-world view.
To outshine rivals, Snap has made Specs far lighter than the Vision Pro and more capable than Meta's glasses, which have been developed with EssilorLuxottica and weigh roughly half as much as Specs.
Initially available in black, Specs resemble a pair of chunky retro sunglasses with thick frames and need no external battery pack or accessories, such as a puck for hand gesture control.
Through their AR lenses, they can overlay digital content onto the wearer's view of the real world, projecting walking directions on streets, fetching AI-powered answers mid-task or letting them stream content and open a virtual whiteboard.
Developers have built AR experiences ranging from an immersive Apollo 11 recreation to PuttView golf guidance, and Specs also have other smartglass features such as capturing video.
"We wanted to build a totally new type of computer," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told Reuters.
He said the company developed new technology across nearly every component, from a custom display and lens layer delivering a wide field of view to software optimized for low-power chips that extends battery life without adding bulk.
Specs offer the capability of some "more expensive headsets with the wearability of smart glasses at a more accessible price point," Spiegel said.
The glasses are far cheaper than the $3,499 Vision Pro but pricier than Meta's $379-to-$799 range, which may limit consumer adoption.
"The price point is still a bit on the high end of what consumers expect from AR glasses," said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
But he said "building full AR glasses is extremely difficult and expensive, and for Snap to be among the first is a big deal," noting that Specs' operating system is "undervalued" and key to the product.
Shares of Snap fell 1.6% in afternoon trading.
MEMORY CHIP CRUNCH IMPACT, FOCUS ON DEVELOPERS
Spiegel said the memory chip cost surge "has been quite impactful" and Snap wants to offer cheaper versions in the future, though it has not disclosed how much memory Specs carry.
Powered by two Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, Specs offer up to four hours of battery life and come with a charging case that provides four additional charges. They are expected to ship this fall in the U.S., UK and France, with wider availability tied to pre-order demand.
Snap is initially focusing on developers key to building AR experiences. It said "hundreds of thousands" already use its Lens Studio and it is rolling out app-building tools through Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, among other features.
That could prove crucial as competition intensifies.
Google partnered with Warby Parker late last year to launch AI-powered smartglasses, while Apple is developing a pair that could arrive as soon as next year, according to Bloomberg News.
OpenAI, which acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive's startup, has also considered building glasses, the Information has reported.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
