With Nvidia, AWS, and SafeTime, Snap (SNAP.US) is looking for “business buyers” for $2,195 AR

The Zhitong Finance App has learned that Snap (SNAP.US) is partnering with Nvidia, Amazon Cloud Technology (AWS), and Saftex as part of its effort to bring the $2,000 Specs augmented reality glasses to the enterprise market.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the move was linked to the company's broader effort to help people “understand that Specs are a computer, not a pair of smart glasses for taking pictures.”

When Snap released the Specs AR glasses in June, they were priced at $2,195 with a $200 refundable deposit, and the company positioned the device for mass consumers rather than developers. Despite the continuous advancement of AR and related virtual reality technology over the years, devices such as Microsoft's HoloLens and Meta's Quest brand VR headsets have never been a hit.

Spiegel said that the bulkiness of those earlier devices was a major obstacle, and said that the company's Specs AR glasses would be more suitable for tasks such as helping field technicians troubleshoot equipment faults by looking at digital instructions and interact with workers.

To date, Snap's success has come from the consumer market. The company hopes that partnerships with companies such as Nvidia will change this situation.

Spiegel said, “They have an open source XR AI platform, and many companies are already developing on it.” “The goal of partnering with Safrus and Nvidia is to make it really easy for companies to reap the benefits of those smart platforms.”

Snap also launched an AI service for consumers called Specs Intelligence, which acts like a digital assistant that can perform tasks on AR glasses and iPhone and Mac computers. Spiegel said the company has yet to determine specific pricing details, but it will include a free file and set “different price levels” depending on usage.

The company's latest AI-related experiment comes at a time when debates over security are heating up across the tech market, and discussions about whether foundational model leaders such as Anthropic and OpenAI should slow down the pace of development.

“These are concerns that have been raised for a long time,” Spiegel said.

“It's important to coordinate an international and well-considered response,” Spiegel said. “It's important for regulators and policy makers to consider the actual harm that might exist rather than the harm that is imagined, so I think it would be very important for a thoughtful international group to actually sit down and discuss this matter.”