Hacker News Reader

Comment by azinman2 | Hacker News Reader

“Excess inventory and related charges – In Q3 2017, we recorded $39.9 million of charges related to Spectacles inventory, primarily related to excess inventory reserves and inventory purchase commitment cancellation charges.“

Looks like spectacles was a failure.

View on HN

> Looks like spectacles was a failure.

What I find most interesting about this is directly from the first line of the company description in their S1:

"Snap is a camera company"[0]

Yet the one instance where they actually own and sell a camera (i.e. Spectacles) instead of leverage someone else's (i.e. smartphone) it's a massive failure.

[0] - https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564408/000119312517...

It’s ok to take big bets. Sometimes they are too early but taking big bets is a sign of a budding great company. Disclaimer : Not an investor in SNAP

Taking big bets that turn profitable is a sign of a great company. Taking big bets that lose money is a sign of an soon-to-be-bankrupt company.

Fire Phone anyone?

How are they comparable?

I never saw anyone on the street with Spectacles and that signals to me it is a failure. I find this rule works for portable consumer electronics.

One place that heuristic fails is for kids technology. Parents will buy almost anything that they think either benefits their kid or makes parenting easier.

Replace street with other parents kids at daycare .

The biggest sign of failure to me was watching my girlfriends younger siblings switch from Snapchat to Instagram stories. They're getting eaten.

I did. I saw them in a lot of places. I live near SNAP (I've seen a matte black Mazaratti in my neighborhood with the licenseplate SNPCHT, or something like that) so maybe that's why. But I only ever saw them at techie events like GDC and around Santa Monica where all the tech companies are.

I think you mean Maserati.

I wonder if they examined analytics before jumping into Specs or whether they just ran with the idea because they thought it was cool? The vast majority of snapchat users I know of use it for selfies, not front facing images so it would seem like they ignored their own analytics and went for it because they thought it was really cool.

a spectacular failure

Are you speculating or have you seen this clearly? Personally, any way you frame it, it comes down to a lack of focus; failing to act before the lens of public opinion shifted.

I think he was being punny, but given you use the word "spec-culating" Perhaps, you are being punny too. I can't tell anymore

  Are you speculating or have you seen this clearly? Personally, any way you frame it, it comes down to a lack of focus; failing to act before the lens of public opinion shifted.

speculating

frame

focus

lens

Did I miss any?

"have you seen this clearly" :)

speculating, frame, focus, lens

Eye see what you're looking at, their vision has blurred, and putting on blinders or rose-colored glasses won't alter that view.

spectacular failure

Reply on news.ycombinator.com