Snap jumps after confirming Spectacles 2.0 — even though the first version was a flop (SNAP)

pulse

April 11, 2018 4:43 PM

Shares of the company popped 3% when the news hit markets Wednesday.

Shares of the company popped 3% when the news hit markets Wednesday.

Shares of Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc.,popped more than 3% Wednesday after the company confirmed it would release a new version of its Spectacles camera glasses.

The new Spectacles, described as "Model 002," were made public Tuesday in a regulatory filing with the FCC. Details are scant, but the document reveals more advanced Wi-Fi capabilities than the first version, and the glasses will be made in China.

When Spectacles launched in 2016 they seemed to be a hit, with huge lines of people looking to get their hands on the $130 camera glasses.

But the hype faded, and late last year Snap admitted that it wrote down $40 million in unsold Spectacles. Ultimately, Snap only sold 150,000 pairs of Spectacles in the product's first year.

But Snap CEO Evan Spiegel calls his company a "camera company," and its continued interest in camera glasses shows that it still wants to make hardware.

Shares of Snap have declined nearly 40% since its IPO in March of 2017.

Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

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