There was a time when GoPro was everywhere and doing everything, from action cameras, to drones, to 360 cameras. Heck, I even learned how to make 360 videos using a cage that held 6 GoPro Heros. It all seemed so promising until it wasn't. What happened?
The Company Man takes a look at this titan of the camera industry and breaks down the reasons for the company's inability to grow beyond its original action cameras.
It's something that's been perplexing to me. When I used GoPros to make 360 videos about 7 or 8 years ago (before the GoPro Max all-in-one solution that never really took off), it seemed logical that this was going to be the way of the future. But GoPro never really capitalized on that, and instead let its lunch be eaten by the likes of upstarts like Insta360 and its X series of 360 cameras.
And speaking of things that never really took off, so too was the case with its Karma drone. I've watched one of these fall out of the sky after losing power, and it's frightening. GoPro recalled all of them for this reason shortly after launching it in 2016, handing DJI the torch for consumer drones with its Mavic series. Again, a Hero camera seems like a perfect fit to mount on a drone, but GoPro failed to capitalize on what should be a natural synergy here.
And now these same companies are encroaching on GoPro's bread and butter. I've raved in the past about the Insta360 Go series cameras as excellent action cameras, and DJI has jumped in with its Osmo Action cameras.
There's a lot more to it than just poor product planning. In the video above, The Company Man dives into the financials and the history behind the company, and the story of the founder is a compelling one that helps explain a bit of what happened in the background for the company to end up where it has. Check it out if you want to know more about the rise and fall of GoPro.
They should go higher end with some 1 inch sensors or maybe and interchangeable lens mount.
Interchangeable lenses would have been too brilliant for their small box they chose to cram into innovatively.
Seems like you missed the main point: GoPro tried to compete with its main customers (DJI 3DR) with the Karma. It took both about a month to stop using GoPro.
This is the lesson: Never compete with your A customers.
I remember exhibiting at the Commercial UAV Expo when the announcement came. I said immediately that GoPro made a huge mistake. I was not the only one.
There's a $94 billion dollar industry that virtually has been begging for a camera to fit its needs. It's mainly a male dominant market, but surprisingly 45% are female, avg age 43.5, avg income 85k. But for all intense and purposes, GoPro has ignored it. The hunting and fishing industry has looked else where for capturing their memories because nothing has really been offered by GoPro to meet their needs.
The sporting industry has ignored them for years because of this negligence. Cameras with a regular lens without a severe fish eye is necessary. The years past and nothing but ancient tech from Kodak (which had tele and fisheye attachment lenses) and competitors was all that was available. The absence of a conforming standard thread mount also didn't help.
The industry has moved on to cellphone adapters and camera arms that will fit standard video cameras with common threads for their A reel. GoPro or cheaper knockoffs were relegated to B footage if any got recorded.
GoPro needs a simple video recorder with a standard lens. Add all the App and Bluetooth features. Adding both optical and digital zoom would be nice too. Fps must be 60 fps by default; it's vital for replay performance of action scenes.
I don't see why the cameras couldn't have been $300 or less. Every variation seemed overpriced and greedy.
They should have also been the leaders on dashcams if they would have invested there. That seems like a huge miss for their fisheye cameras. That should have been a no brainer.
My guess is that consumers wouldn't have bought $400 dashcams. So, they couldn't make cheaper ones because people would have just bought those for their action cams. Seemed like they just packed themselves into a tiny box and wouldn't adjust to consumer needs.
Lack of innovation and forward thinking. It just seemed like they kept putting out the same regurgitated models with minor differences.
The main reason GoPro has lost my loyalty is that the 11 and 12 models are not waterproof. The new door system is appalling and leaks regularly, wrecking the camera.
Here’s the thing though, despite all of GoPro’s missteps and missed opportunities they still have the best product on the market.
No other action camera has the image quality of GoPro and the GoPro stabilization (especially in conjunction with reesteady) is still the best. And this goes for the MAX too. The form factor isn’t the best, but the resulting image is still superior to other products on the market.
Have you tried any of the latest from Kandao or Insta360? Blows the max away. Though it seems like there's a new MAX on the horizon so that may change things.