People are missing the point of Snaps $2,195 Specs AR glasses

This week, Snap held a launch event for Specs, the $2,195 augmented reality glasses coming later this fall, and revealed a lot more about the glasses' features.

But when Snap first announced Specs over the summer, the reaction probably didn't go as planned.

The glasses' design was mocked pretty hard on social media, and the price tag gave a lot of people sticker shock.

But unlike Meta Ray-Bans, which start at $379 and are geared toward creators, Snap is targeting an entirely different type of customer.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told Mashable in June that the glasses were made for early adopters and developers, not the general public.

"We're really gonna start with the developer community...And then we'll extend beyond that, with the early adopters and folks who see a lot of value in specific use cases — whether they're trying to improve their golf swing or whether they just want to work on the road and still bring the benefits of that large display or monitor." Unfortunately for Snap, the Specs launch arrives at a very awkward time.

Meta's smart glasses have been heavily criticized over privacy concerns , and as Mashable has covered, the Meta Ray-Bans have been embraced by unscrupulous creators and creeps who harass and record strangers .

That's sparked a backlash against the technology, and the criticism has been loud enough that Apple is reportedly delaying its own smart glasses launch .

But while I definitely can't afford Specs, I think the critics are missing the point.

Snap said the company filed more than 7,000 patents in developing Specs, and I suspect that's where the real value is.

What are Snap Specs? Snap Specs are AR display glasses.

The dual-display glasses feature proprietary liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) technology and custom optical waveguides.

When watching a movie on the glasses, it will look like you're watching a 115-inch screen about 10 feet away.

Credit: Snap If you aren't familiar with AR glasses, they're fundamentally different from Meta Ray-Ban glasses, with their built-in cameras for content creation.