Snapchat reportedly flies Pixy drone plans into the nearest tree
It wasn’t that long ago thatSnapchatwas the hot new social media upstart, snatching users away from established platforms. These days, Snap finds itself on the defensive, watchingTikTokdrain its base. Desperate times call for innovative measures, and earlier this year we saw Snap announce an unusual accessory that seemed designed to get people excited about its app again: thePixy camera drone. Unfortunately, it sounds like things haven’t gone quite as intended for the project, and a new report now claims that Snap has grounded its drone ambitions.
Starting at just $230, the Pixy selfie drone was designed to float around and capture footage, set to a pre-determined flight path. While that makes it quote a bit more limited than general-purpose drones, it’s also a choice that substantially lowers the bar of entry — and presumably keeps costs down, as well.
CEO Evan Spiegel shared news of the company abandoning its future plans for Pixy with Snap employees, according toThe Wall Street Journal. The decision is intended to let the company make better use of current resources, and it’s unclear if it ever might consider spinning any of this drone stuff back up at some point further down the road.
As for the Pixy itself, existing stock will still besold to users(a situation that reminds us a bit ofSpotfy and its Car Thing), but don’t count on seeing any Pixy 2.0. While there’s certainly merit in realizing when an effort isn’t working out and being able to make an early call to change tracks, we can’t imagine that Pixy’s extremely abbreviated lifespan will do any favors for a company that seems to have to try harder every year to prove its ongoing relevancy.
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