Take a chance on the augmented reality glasses but are they seeing clearly?

Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snap and its chief executive, describes building augmented reality glasses as “a journey”, “a blue ocean strategy”, or a leap into a new territory.It is a holy grail of technology to be able to incorporate highly complex technologies, including batteries, into an easily wearable frame.Snap announced the fifth generation of Spectacles on Tuesday evening. This is the first time that they have been updated in 2021.

The latest version of the device, which combines the digital world with the real one, is an impressive engineering feat.Investors wonder if a company that is losing money can afford to take on such uncharted waters. It has to deal with a floundering stock price, a difficult ad-market, strict regulations for social media, and competitors who have deep pockets. It hasn’t disclosed how much money it spent on the product.

Spiegel stated that it was an investment for the future of the company: “I do not think it is enough to simply execute the business today.” I believe you need to build the company of tomorrow.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank appear to be in agreement. In a recent note, they said “we believe that continued investment in new features and products will increase the durability of existing users as well as attract more new users to the platform”.

Snapchat is an app for mobile phones that allows users to send pictures, videos, and messages. Snapchat “snaps” are only visible to the recipient. Its popular effects include filters that overlay graphic images onto photos.

This is why the company invests in AR glasses to bring the images from the app into reality. According to the company, the camera “presents the most opportunity to improve how people live and communicate”.Spiegel: “Our vision is to build glasses that keep people in the real-world, bring them together with friends, and allow them to use technology more naturally.”

Jamie MacEwan who is the tech reporter for Enders Analysis says: “The idea that entertainment and productivity can be seamlessly integrated into our world is exciting.” Manufacturers still have a long way to go before they can achieve this. It’s important to have a lightweight, affordable device with a decent battery life and compelling applications.These glasses are not enough to make a difference. They are closer to Apple headset in terms of form and price.Spiegel predicts that by the end of the decade, you will see people wearing them.

Spiegel told The Times that there is still room for improvement in terms of wearability and runtime, but one reason we are so excited about it is because people will be able to create many more experiences. This is going to be important as we build the developer ecosystem that will allow for many more experiences, as the glasses become increasingly ready for a wider audience.

Evan Spiegel, the husband of Miranda Kerr (an Australian model), did not disclose the cost to develop the glasses.The company produces a limited number of bulky specs and sells them to developers for $99 per month. Qi Pan is Snap’s director for computer vision engineering in London. She says, “First, we want to build adoption, then build software, and finally build scale.”

He adds, “We have used every millimetre.” Over time, we will make them lighter. We want to eventually have the same shape as regular glasses. . . “But I don’t think they will be small enough for a couple of years.”

Snap isn’t the only company investing in AR glasses. Meta, a company that has collaborated with Ray Ban on AR glasses, will launch their own pair of codenamed Orion at the end this month.

Andrew Bosworth (Meta’s chief tech officer) told the Verge website in the US last year that it was “the most advanced technology on earth”.Google Glass was launched in 2011 and failed to gain traction on the consumer market. However, the company is still developing AR glasses for business, while rumours suggest that they are working on a pair of consumer-focused AR glasses. Apple, too, is reportedly working on AR glasses as part of a long-term plan to introduce wearable AR tech around 2027.Magic Leap, Niantic and other companies are also in this space.

Snap has had a difficult journey. Snap announced that in 2022 it would be reducing its “investment focus” on Spectacles due to the layoffs of 20% of employees. In February of this year, it cut another 10% and now employs around 4,700 people.Hardware is another area where it has had a mixed record. It was forced to recall the Pixie flying cameras earlier this year due to battery fires.It has been a great boon to the UK that it played a major role in the development of the glasses.

Snap will buy WaveOptics in 2021, for $500 million, to build the 100in AR displays. London is where the computer vision software that helps the glasses interpret and understand the world was developed.

Everything in these thick frames needs to be smaller to make them “normal”, but the battery life is still the same.Snap was founded in 2011 by Spiegel, 34,, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, both Stanford University graduates.The company’s 850 million active monthly users are far behind the larger and more popular TikTok and Facebook.A recent earnings call led an investor to ask if it was “fundamentally disadvantage”.

Snapchat has an advantage, though, in that it is a younger demographic. Snapchat boasts that three quarters of people between the ages of 13 and 34 use it in over 25 countries, but more than 80 percent of them are older than 18.Snap’s main source of revenue is advertising. It is catching up with its competitors, and only a small fraction comes from subscription sales.

Its latest quarter saw revenue of $1.24 billion. This is up 16 percent from the previous year. In this period, it lost $249 million compared to $377 million in the year 2023. Meta, on the other hand, made $39 billion of revenue in its last quarter.

Spiegel’s share price has fallen by 64 percent since its initial public offering in 2017, despite the fact that it was “on pace to record annual revenues”, as Spiegel informed its staff in September.Why? The chief executive of the company said, “The answer is very simple.” “Our advertising business grows slower than our competitors.”

Spiegel has redoubled its efforts to change the mix of advertisers, both small and large. The share price is important not only for investors, but also for employees who are incentivized to stay with stock options.He doesn’t see a conflict with his investment in Spectacles.

Spiegel says that it’s important to continue serving our advertising partners, and helping them grow their business. It’s important to think long-term and invest in Snap’s long-term growth, as well as accelerating our advertising businesses today.Snap isn’t the only company investing in AR glasses.

Meta will launch its own pair of glasses at the end this month, but Spiegel believes it’s an open market and his bet could pay off. There isn’t one dominant company making glasses at the moment. We are a leader in the field of augmented reality. It’s a market which is just starting to develop and this is very exciting”.It is not catching up in all areas.The battery life is the only thing that needs to be reduced in this thick frame.

The box is hidden in a room at Snap’s London offices. The lid opens to reveal a pair of thick black glasses with lenses tinted to allow them to function in sunlight. This is Snap’s latest augmented-reality “Spectacles”.

The frames are heavy, tight and uncomfortable. It’s not surprising that they have the technology and batteries of two smartphones. When they are turned on using the button on the frame, an app menu appears floating in midair.

The “tutorial”, which is a bunch of bubbles, floats in front of me and I “pinch” them to pop them. A cluster of jellyfish then appears and teaches me how to “pinch” and “pull” to shrink and expand the sea creatures. When I extend my palm into the field of view of the specs, a remote is revealed. Turning it around to the back, the settings menu appears.

I test a variety of apps, powered by a new system that maps your environment in real-time. One app guides me through the human anatomy. In another, I destroy and punch coloured bricks. Qi Pan is the director of computer-vision engineering at Snap. My ears are folded in half after 20 minutes under the 226 grams of spectacles. Pan warns that the batteries could make the arms feel hot.

It’s impressive to see and try the technology, but it will be a while before they are mainstream.