Snap has hundreds of thousands of leftover Spectacles: report

Snap may have overestimated how popular its Spectacles would be.

Demand for Spectacles, sunglasses with a built-in camera that work with Snapchat, once reportedly commanded hourslong lines to obtain, but dropped off after last year’s holiday season. Snap, the company behind Snapchat, now reportedly has hundreds of thousands of pairs that have not sold, according to The Information.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel recently said that the company had sold 150,000 pairs, exceeding the company’s expectations. 

Spectacles allow users to wirelessly record videos into Snapchat from their sunglasses, which they can then send and share from their accounts. After teasing the sunglasses in late 2016, Spiegel suggested that the product could be a significant part of the future of the company.

{mosads}

“Our view is that hardware is going to be an important vehicle for delivering our customer experience maybe in a decade,” Spiegel said at a conference earlier in October, according to TechCrunch. “But if we believe it’s going to be important in a decade, we don’t want to be starting a decade from now.”

In September, the company laid off roughly a dozen employees on its 150-person hardware team. On Friday, the company reportedly laid off another 18 employees on its recruiting team as it prepares to slow down its hiring.

Snap had also reportedly been considering purchasing drone maker Zero Zero Robotics to further expand its hardware unit, but talks of a deal have fallen through, according to The Information.

The company struggled to keep pace with the rapid growth that investors expect of tech firms. Snap missed its expected earnings target last quarter as its user growth slows. Accordingly, Snap’s stock hasn’t traded above its $17 initial public offering price since early July. Its next earnings call is scheduled for Nov. 7.