Why Snapchat Spectacles failed
It&#x27;s amazing how you can write a whole article on this, but the gist is they built something with low utility value. period.<p>If you look at it from this point of view, everything else is just side effect.<p>- It failed because it&#x27;s not fashionable? =&gt; No. See bluetooth headset. Also see Crocs. If it&#x27;s useful, people will use it.<p>- It failed because it waited 5 months to sell it? =&gt; No. See Apple.<p>- It failed because the excitement died off by the time it shipped? =&gt; No. See all kinds of films that succeeded WITHOUT any initial hype (such as the Matrix)<p>- It failed because it couldn&#x27;t get any influencers to endorse the product? =&gt; No, see Snapchat. Yeah their original app itself.<p>- It failed because the content couldn&#x27;t be ported over to other platform without cropping? =&gt; No. In fact, if Spectacles would have succeeded, Techcrunch would probably be blabbering about how the key to success is how brilliant its marketing strategy was, so that all the videos uploaded to youtube and instagram had the &quot;signature snapchat crop&quot;, which got everyone else curious.<p>The only arguments I agree with in this article are related to its utility--how it&#x27;s considered rude to be video taping someone else, and how it was limited to sunglasses format.<p>The rest is bullshit because they&#x27;re one of those &quot;MBA case studies&quot; type after-the-fact interpretation, which in most cases are bullshit.<p>Just go build something useful and you will never have to worry about being &quot;fashionable&quot; or all the gimmicks. In fact as a tech company you should never see yourself as a fashion company. It&#x27;s a myth created by ignorant media pundits who&#x27;s never built a product in their life.