Snap plans to "significantly" increase distribution of its Spectacles wearable, the company revealed in its initial public offering for investors (IPO) today, meaning you stand a greater chance of snapping up a pair of the stylish sunglasses and camera combo in the not-so-distant future.
The popular messaging platform just filed its highly anticipated IPO, seeking to raise $3 billion before it hits the stock market. Snap's reported valuation is between $20 billion and $25 billion.
Those numbers are, to put it mildly, impressive for a company founded on disappearing chats, but nestled in the filing's financial chatter are insights into Snap's hardware plans, particularly as these relate to its one and only device, Spectacles.
Snap said that while Spectacles aren't a significant source of revenue (and it actually anticipates taking a loss as production ramps up), it will invest heavily in the wearable's development and launch.
"In 2017, we expect to continue to make substantial investments in inventory, marketing, distribution, and product innovation as we assess product demand," Snap writes in the filing, referring to Spectacles.
"Additionally, we plan to significantly broaden the distribution of Spectacles, which will increase our costs and overall financial risk."
Snap is willing to take risks, by the way, "in an attempt to create innovative and different camera products that are better able to reflect and improve our life experiences."
You can watch TechRadar's unboxing of Spectacles below:
For the uninitiated, Spectacles are sunglasses with a camera in the frame. Users can capture videos from their point-of-view with Spectacles, then upload these as Snaps to Snapchat.
Snap is positioning itself as a camera company, not a messaging platform, and Spectacles are just one way it wants to help people connect through video.
Though more fashionable and user-friendly than Google Glass, the biggest problem with Spectacles is availability: You can only buy a pair at a single New York City store and vending machines, which are in turn randomly plopped in select cities. In other words, you can't visit Google Play or walk into your local Best Buy and purchase Spectacles.
Snap provides no additional details on its larger roll out plans for Spectacles, so there's no telling what it will look like or when it might happen. Spectacles have done well enough, it seems, to warrant "significantly" broader distribution, and depending on the response, might not be the last hardware product we see from Snap.
The IPO has hints of other wearables to come - "We may develop future products that are regulated as medical devices by the FDA," it says at one point (as eyewear, Spectacles are FDA-regulated). This may be just the beginning of Snap's grand hardware plan. Stay tuned.
