Snap Inc. launched its first hardware product last year. Spectacles. They were meant to make it easier for people to share moments from their day on Snapchat. They were popular last year when they came out, but the hype wore off and then sales slowed.
Now according to a new report, the company is sitting on “hundreds of thousands” of unsold units because there’s no longer any demand for the product. They obviously overestimated demand by a lot.
Apparently Snap expected that demand would continue after the holiday season last year so it ordered “hundreds of thousands” of additional units. But, after it opened sales to more people, the demand actually went to nearly zero. So Snap has been left holding the inventory. It has a mountain of unsold Spectacles in warehouses.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said earlier this year that the company had sold more than 150,000 units, but it’s unclear just how many units have been sold so far and by how much Snap over-ordered additional units. The figure also includes unassembled units with parts that could possibly be used in other products though. Who knows what the 150-person hardware team is working on right now. There have been reports that the company might be developing a drone but the report claims that Snap has given up on its drone program, so it looks like these parts are just collecting dust.
Source Ubergizmo