MW Snap breaks from the pack with heavy $2,195 smart glasses. Wall Street is panning the move.

By Hannah Pedone

Snap's stock was extending its declines, as the weight of its new ultraexpensive augmented-reality glasses is seen as a potential 'nonstarter for mass appeal'

On Tuesday, Snap released Specs - its $2,195 augmented-reality glasses.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is deepening his bet on augmented-reality glasses - but investors aren't buying the pitch.

The Snapchat parent company (SNAP) got into the technology-infused glasses game relatively early, debuting its first Spectacles about a decade ago. And on Tuesday, Snap revealed Specs, a new version of the glasses - this time with a $2,195 price tag.

Investors aren't impressed, sending the company's shares down nearly 10% in Tuesday's session and another 4% as of midday Wednesday. Critics question the merits of Snap's decision to double down on AR spending, as well as some of the design and pricing choices made with this latest iteration of the glasses.

Augmented reality is a technology that overlays digital displays against real-world surroundings. Specs can digitize a chess board, provide AR-guided training for shooting basketballs and even highlight the coolant reservoir under the hood of a car, according to videos and photos online.

But Snap is said to be following a different path than some of its larger competitors. Meta Platforms (META) and Google $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ are "focusing now on lighter glasses, under 50 grams, with consumers seen not wanting to wear heavier devices," wrote Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett. And Apple $(AAPL)$ started selling its heavy $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset in early 2024, but the company is reportedly pivoting to more affordable glasses, according to Bloomberg.

By contrast, the lightest Specs model weighs 132 grams. Crockett likens that to the approximate weight of a baseball, "which is seen as maybe a nonstarter for mass appeal."

"We've been skeptical that Snap can out-execute the giants," he continued, saying it could take a few generations of Specs hardware "before this becomes big."

All the while, analysts have questions over the company's spending on this sort of hardware. According to estimates from activist investor Irenic Capital Management, Snap has spent more than $3.5 billion so far on AR hardware, based on assumptions about average annual spending and the cost of an AR acquisition.

"At this point, if Specs cannot be funded on its own, it is time to shut it down," Irenic said in a March letter.

Snap did not immediately respond to request for comment.

In a company blog post, Snap said its goal with Specs was to "build something powerful enough for augmented reality and light enough to be worn for hours.

"Today's devices often require a tradeoff. AI glasses are lightweight but limited in what they can do, while headsets are powerful but can feel isolating and cumbersome," the company added. "We wanted to build something different."

Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at International Data Corp. who follows mobile devices, told MarketWatch that Snap's "heavy spending" in an "unproven" extended-reality market has raised red flags for investors.

"On the product side, Snap is positioning Specs as consumer-grade AR glasses, which is a pivot from previous iterations. But at its current price point and with a design that hasn't yet achieved mainstream appeal, the glasses face a steep road to mass adoption," he said.

Snap's stock has been struggling since the company went public in March 2017. It's down 82% since the IPO. The company has also faced criticism for an aggressive approach to stock-based compensation that has diluted existing shareholders.

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"Snap's use of stock to compensate employees is too substantial and even more costly when you consider how undervalued Snap shares are," according to the activists at Irenic Capital.

BNP Paribas analyst Nick Jones wrote in a Tuesday note that Snap's pricing strategy for Specs may be contributing to the company's stock weakness following the release. He pointed out that the pricing for Specs comes in well above the price of Meta's offerings, which start as low as about $250.

Specs are expected to ship this fall in the U.S., the U.K. and France, according to Snap.

-Hannah Pedone

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June 17, 2026 13:06 ET (17:06 GMT)

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