Snap Halts Development of Flying Selfie Pixy Drone

Less than four months after launching the product publicly, Snap is discontinuing the development of the Pixy flying selfie camera drone as it adjusts its product plans during the economic downturn (via CNBC News).

Citing people familiar with the matter, the report was initially published by The Wall Street Journal, noting that the decision was relayed to the staff by Snap CEO Evan Spiegel during a routine Q&A session.

The source adds that the effort to halt further development of the project is “part of broader reprioritization of company resources.”

Snap, which calls itself a camera company on its website, has been trying to break into hardware, most notably through several iterations of Spectacles sunglasses with built-in cameras.

The first version of Spectacles caused the company to take a nearly $40 million write-down in 2017 due to excess inventory.

As the company’s struggles continue with physical products, its core ad business is also getting pummeled.

For those who aren’t familiar, Pixy is a yellow, square-shaped, autonomous photography and videography drone designed for self-filming. It takes off and lands in the user’s hand with a US $230 starting price.

Snap will continue to sell the current version of Pixy, with the product still available to order on the company’s website.