pixiesthe intelligent drone of Snap designed to capture photos and videos and share them on Snapchat, it seems to have met an abrupt end. As reported The Wall Street Journalthe company led by Evan Spiegel has decided to discontinue development of the small device.
According to the report, it was Snap’s CEO himself who informed employees about Pixy’s end. Based on the information available, the decision was made to “reprioritize” company resources. Anyway, no official announcement on the matter has been released yet.
The aforementioned publication also indicates that Snap will continue to sell the current version of Pixy. In fact, the drone is still available on his official online store. However, it is unknown if the idea is to wipe out the remaining units in inventory, or simply hold orders for a certain time until they are formally cancelled.
What is truly remarkable about this story is that not even four months have passed since the device was presented to the public. At the end of last April, Snap surprised by announcing the launch of Pixy, a drone so small that it could take off from the user’s hand and intelligently detect their movements to capture photos and videos. The device even had some augmented reality features, aimed at generating the most suitable content for later publication on Snapchat.
Snap would have quickly thrown in the towel with Pixy
Interested parties could get the drone in its standard version for $230, or in a variant that also included a USB charging cable and rechargeable batteries for $250. From the start, Snap said Pixy sales would be limited because only a certain number of units had been produced due to supply chain problems. However, the company held out hope of expanding availability with a second version. An option that has already been discarded, if the report of WSJ is accurate.
If Snap’s determination is ultimately confirmed, it won’t come as too much of a surprise; is that while the introduction of Pixy made some noise at first, it was far from becoming a passion for crowds. To this we must add that the financial results that the company presented in July were not very benevolent, presenting the weakest quarter of sales since the company was listed on the Stock Exchange.
The company’s advertising section has also been affected since the introduction of App Tracking Transparency in iOS. By not being able to access user data to display targeted advertising, their business model has suffered a serious blow. Today, Snap stock is trading at $12.60, 82.5% less than it was worth a year ago.
It’s clear that Snap never thought of Pixy as a product that would revolutionize the social media industry. However, the apparent cancellation of it just 4 months after launching it suggests that its impact was even less than expected.