Huawei previews smart glasses to rival Snapchat Spectacles
Huawei has previewed a new range of smart glasses designed by a Korean eyewear firm that want to challenge Snapchat’s Spectacles.
Built in tandem with fashion firm Gentle Monster, the glasses include Bluetooth pairing capabilities which enable users to tap the frame in order to answer calls as well as use the built-in speakers to activate a voice assistant.
The future is now! Together with Gentle Monster we have joined forces to take your wearable intelligence to the next level with #HUAWEI X GENTLE MONSTER EYEWEAR. pic.twitter.com/MrgO2esXK4
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) March 26, 2019
Gentle Monster said the aim of the new range was to create smart glasses that were fashionable and stylish first rather than re-designing them in order to fit in the required tech.
The fashion firm’s chief executive Hankook Kim even appeared to take a swipe at Snapchat’s Spectacles during his appearance on-stage.
Alongside images of other smartglasses including the Spectacles, Kim asked: “How many people want to wear this as we meet our friends or lovers?”.
Unlike Spectacles, the Gentle Monster smartglasses do not contain any cameras, allowing for a smaller frame.
Smartglasses have been a difficult market to succeed in so far for tech firms, with Google’s Glass headsets being withdrawn from public sale to become an enterprise product in 2017, while Snapchat is yet to report any real success through sales of Spectacles.
No pricing has yet been confirmed for the eyewear, but Huawei consumer boss Richard Yu said the Chinese firm hoped to have them on-sale by July.
