Snapchat releases Spectacles through vending machines

Snap Spectacles are currently a hot but rare commodity, fetching around $900 to $2,000 on eBay.  Image Snap Inc.

With a simple glance at a pair of Snap Spectacles, it’s easy to see that they are being marketed more of as a fashion item than another geek toy. So instead of giving out samples to fashion-challenged techies and bloggers for review, Snap Inc. went ahead and released its new product directly to Snapchat’s core audience through funny-looking snapbot vending machines.

TechCrunch reports that these goofy-looking snapbot vending machines have been scattered at key places such as a beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, a roadside tourist trap off Route 61 near Tulsa, Oklahoma, and near a national park in Big Sur, California.

Image Snap Inc.

This type of strategic placement allowed Snap to position their new product where Snapchat’s main audience are likely to find it, lineup, and get a pair of Spectacles for $130. The perceived scarcity has also caused Spectacles value to skyrocket online, fetching as much as $2,000 on eBay.

Robert Scoble, the infamous and enthusiastic tech blogger who shot a selfie with the Google Glass while naked in the shower, says that Spectacle Snapbots “make a lot more sense than the way Google rolled out Google Glass to developers and nerds.”

Coming from a nerd, that says a lot. With this kind of approach, the Spectacles may well be able to achieve what the Google Glass could not, which is to become a mainstream product that people use without the danger of looking like a total geek.  Alfred Bayle