Mark Randall is out as hardware team 'realigns'
Mark Randall, Snap Inc.’s vice president of hardware and lead on Spectacles, has left the company.
Randall, who joined Snap in 2016 to head up its Spectacles project, announced his departure in an internal memo obtained by Cheddar. It’s the latest shake-up for the Specs division, which saw layoffs last year, and for the company at large, which has struggled to impress Wall Street since going public.
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According to Randall’s memo, Snap is going to “realign” its hardware initiative under the leadership of Jerry Hunter, Snap’s SVP of Engineering. Meanwhile Randall is off to work on his own company.
It’s been a tough few months for Snap, whose Spectacles haven’t proven to be a significant hit for the company. Snap had to write off almost $40 million in unsold inventory last year, although it recently rolled out a second-gen pair which fixed some of the frustrations of the first, while adding more options for customization.
Randall’s departure leaves a lingering question mark over the future of Spectacles. While limited for now, Specs are a promising vehicle for Snap’s augmented reality efforts, which are blossoming slowly. Sadly, we don’t yet know how well the latest pair of Spectacles have been received.
