Snap CEO Says They've Sold Over 150,000 Units Of Snapchat Spectacles

Snapchat Spectacles are almost nearly a year old and Snap’s CEO Evan Spiegel just confirmed that they’ve already sole more than 150,000 units of the wearable. Spiegel also talked about the importance of Snapchat’s hardware division and the decision to go public earlier this year.

Yesterday, Spiegel spoke to author Walter Isaacson during Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in California. The CEO confirmed that Snap has sold “over 150,000 units” of the Snapchat Spectacles. Spectacles was first introduced by Snap in November 2016 and was the company’s first move to branch out into making hardware products.

Spiegel explained that the sales figures actually exceeded their expectations. He said that their initial goal was to sell at least 100,000 units. To put that number into perspective, Spiegel compared the Snapchat Spectacles sales to the number of iPod units that Apple was able to sell. Back in 2002, Apple was able to sell over 143,000 units of the very first iPod music player just after a full year.

Spiegel said that Snap is proud of its sales figures for Snapchat Spectacles since it matches the popularity of Apple’s original iPod. He also pointed out that Apple was able to sell 300 million units of the iPod during the device’s full lifespan. Spiegel said that he’s convinced that Spectacles has a viable future for the company while also teasing that “so many things” are arriving to the Snapchat wearable, according to 9To5Mac.

The Snap CEO also explained that Spectacles was the company’s attempt to build its own hardware division that could combine the company’s software with custom built devices. “Our view is that hardware is going to be an important vehicle for delivering our customer experience maybe in a decade,” Spiegel said, according to TechCrunch. “But if we believe it’s going to be important in a decade, we don’t want to be starting a decade from now.”

Back in May, it was rumored that Snap was already working on a new pair of Snapchat Spectacles. A patent filed by Snap describes a pair of sunglasses that feature augmented reality capabilities. Spiegel didn’t mention this during his talk, but this might end up being Snap’s next big thing for its hardware division.

The Snap CEO also talked about the company’s decision to go public earlier this year. He admitted that he actually had trouble selling his long-term plans to investors. “One of the things I did underestimate was how much more important communication becomes,” Spiegel said, according to CNBC. “When you go public… you really need to explain to a huge new investor base, right – instead of having 10 new investors, you have 10,000 – you have to explain how your business works. And at the same time you need to do that, there are also all these new regulations about what you can and cannot say and how you can communicate. So I think one of the things we've been going through this year is how to communicate the Snap story.”

Spiegel then went on to say that he thinks that “investors are fearful” that Snap might never be profitable and that its competition might end up killing their business. However, the Snap CEO said that these are “normal fears” for any startup and most successful companies are able to grow because of it.