Snapchat's camera sunglasses come to Switzerland
Snapchat's camera glasses have been available in the U.S. since last fall. Now, the glasses—which are part of the popular photo app Snapchat—are coming to Europe, including Switzerland.
In total, the "Spectacles" glasses are sold in 14 European countries. In addition to Switzerland, these include Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands. The operating company Snap is not selling the glasses in stores in Europe, but, as in the home market of the USA, on the Internet and via yellow vending machines (Snapbot) that appear for a short time in various locations. It is still unclear whether such vending machines will also be available in Switzerland.
On the internet the glasses cost 150 francs. In Germany, a vending machine appeared in Berlin on Friday at the "MountMitte" climbing park. In Paris, it stood on the Seine with the Eiffel Tower behind it and in London in front of the London Eye Ferris wheel. There was also a "Snapbot" machine at the port of Barcelona and in Italy, appropriately enough, in Venice - Snap is based in Venice Beach near Los Angeles.
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The camera in the Spectacles records up to ten-second videos at the touch of a button. It films the surroundings at an angle of 115 degrees. The format of the videos is circular, which is supposed to mimic the field of vision of the human eye. A light on the glasses indicates that recording is in progress. The clips are then transmitted to the smartphone via Bluetooth radio or WLAN.
Data privacy concerns about the function have not been raised in the U.S., in contrast to the now discontinued Google Glass data glasses. In the U.S., the camera glasses have been on the market since fall for $129.99. In addition to the roaming "Snapbot" vending machines, whose next location is displayed on the Internet 24 hours in advance, there are also three pop-up stores in California.
Snap does not give sales figures. But the latest quarterly results suggested that up to 60,000 of them were sold in the past quarter. At the same time, it said in early May that five million "Snaps" had been made with the glasses so far.
Snap became popular with its photos disappearing on their own in the Snapchat app, but now wants to be perceived as an innovative camera provider.
Snapchat has experienced explosive growth in recent years. But recently, the influx of new users has ebbed noticeably, while Facebook's services like the photo platform Instagram are mimicking key functions of the app. For example, the "Stories" feature invented on Snapchat, where pictures can be uploaded for a day, is used by 200 million users on Instagram every day. Snapchat, meanwhile, totals a good 160 million daily users. Snapchat's stock is weakening because investors are having doubts about whether the company can keep up with its bigger rivals. (SDA)
