Snap CEO Bets On Hardware As AI Erodes Software Moats

@evanspiegel Maybe an impossible task to beat Apple and Meta at this, but probably their only shot long-term

More here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Yol5vX5xw

Meta glasses are good but no rocket science. I helped build there SoC for glasses/ headsets. Small talented team can build the best low latency highly power efficient chip. Rest is pure ux aesthetics ergonomic all day wearable design with high fidelity mfg reproduction. It’s not easy but not impossible either. Thermal is tricky.

@abustamante @evanspiegel He's been doing hardware for a long time, remember their drones, and the original Spectacles?

@lennysan @evanspiegel This seems like a retrofitted thesis to explain the -95% haircut in the market cap, not a real forward-looking vision of the market.

@lennysan @evanspiegel He needs to just take his money and fuck off.

No need to ever compete with Apple/meta/others. Just needs to go live his life and focus on something different like longevity or anything adjacent.

Good take, especially with AI right now. Apart from AI and everything related to it, one important investment opportunity will be in physical things such as a logistics center, physical product, and so on.

This is because the person who can leverage logistics and product creation (with rapid market adaptability) will compete.

Everyone will need physical things. If you can outcompete China and you have great marketing, you're almost there.

@lennysan @evanspiegel I wish they invest on more beautiful moat next time :))

@lennysan @evanspiegel every joke I want to make right now is too hacky to make but I want you all to know that I thought through quite a few options before showing restraint

@lennysan @evanspiegel Seems like a bad reason to make a product. Gotta make something people want first.

@lennysan @evanspiegel He's right, but as Apple will tell you even your best hardware will get copied quickly.

@lennysan @evanspiegel Seems it's easy for a company like Meta both to invest more in hardware and distribute it across a much larger audience of theirs

@lennysan @evanspiegel Yeah but not when they look like recycled 3D movie glasses.

@lennysan @evanspiegel Are you gonna pre order?

@lennysan @evanspiegel Yeah, of course, they were all fun, and doing hardware is extremely difficult and costly, but neither really took off, while software-only competitors did. So maybe the issue was never in hardware being the moat?

@lennysan @evanspiegel durable moats really just mean physics now, you can clone a repo overnight, but still have to machine the parts, takes time.

@lennysan @evanspiegel I think it’s interesting how decisions that look distracting in the present can sometimes look visionary in hindsight.

The hard part is knowing the difference.

@lennysan @evanspiegel Hardware isn't a moat, it's Snap's graveyard.

@lennysan @evanspiegel apple figured this out 20 years ago

@lennysan @evanspiegel Bro is cooked too late open source glasses on the way