Snap unveils $2,195 smart glasses after previous flops

Snapchat's parent company has announced it is releasing new smart glasses, a decade after its original pair lost the company tens of millions of dollars .

The new augmented reality (AR) glasses, called Specs, will allow users to see digital elements overlaid onto the world. They will cost $2,195 (£1,636) when shipping begins this autumn.

That makes them cheaper than Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset and its $3,499 starting price, but far more than Meta's lower range of $224 to $499 smart glasses.

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and chief executive of Snap Inc, said the glasses marked the "beginning of a new era in computing".

Ben Hatton, a market analyst at FDM CCS Insight, said the price tag meant the technology was "unlikely to become a mainstream device any time soon".

Snap's core audience of younger consumers "rarely have this sort of money to spend on a single gadget," he said.

A $200 refundable deposit is needed to pre-order the glasses, which will ship in the US, the UK, and France.

Snap says they are designed to be "wearable for everyday life," though the battery lasts four hours on average before needing charging again. A charging case holds up to 20 hours of battery life.