GoPro cutting 7 percent of its workforce
businessinsider.com
businessinsider.com
One of my goals was to do a bunch of time-lapse shots, taking photos every few seconds and then making a video out of them. They marketed this feature (take a photo every X seconds) quite a bit, so it was definitely a selling point to me.
I discovered the bug a few weeks after owning it, right before a big vacation I was hoping to record. It would take about 8 or 9 photos and then lock up. I couldn't turn it off or stop its capture. When I plugged it into my computer, I saw that there were hundreds of empty folders. I tried power cycling it by taking the battery out and putting it back in. I also wiped out the memory card both via the computer, as well as selecting the 'delete all' option on-camera, all to no effect. I emailed them, and their response was:
> Hi, Do you take many time lapse pictures? What may have happened, is you may have encountered a known issue with our current firmware, in which the camera is no longer able to save files after it has taken 9999 images. Could you please let me know what the name of the last successfully captured image was? If this is the case, we would need you to send in your camera, and would reflash your firmware to fix the issue.
So I had to shell out $20 in shipping and mail my (brand new) camera across the country for it to be reset. I wasn't able to record the trip I took. Still irks me today that they were selling cameras with a known, software-limited, number of shots you could take with them before they had to be sent back.
If their QA department took a photo every 1 second (as their product was advertised to be capable of) it would take 2.78 hours for them to discover this bug.
1. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-SJ4000-1080P-FHD-Sports-Car-Ful...
I have no use for actions cams and am not an expert in any way, but the quality of that $20 camera looks amazing, in some scenes it actually looks sharper and better than the GoPro that costs 5x as much.
Given it was $50, and the shots I was able to pull off the memory card were great, I am not too upset. However, caveat emptor.
This happened because the GoPro probably records interlaced footage, which didn't get properly deinterlaced by the video-creator's software. Basically, the GoPro didn't get a fair trial.
That said, the SJ4000 footage has a decent quality, and I'm all for capable competition.
Incredible !
Sure, you might overwrite some files, but at least you wouldn't brick the thing.
GoPro seem to be going towards smaller cameras (good) higher res (who cares - the camera lens is crap and fogs and is covered in water drops 90% of the time) and drones (who cares)
What we want is more data overlaid on the video or perhaps stored along with the video stream. Things like, depth, altitude, speed, G-force, GPS. From a random user.
[edit] I guess you guys may not be aware of Woo and Xensor which are gadgets you clip to your kiteboard, these measure GPS, jump height, speed etc. These are not sync'd to the video (they are different gadgets) but someone needs to make this work somehow. Not sure how they measure jump height in amongst the waves... it's all pretty neat.
It really isn't niche. GoPro's target demographic are people engaging in all sorts of activities. Biking, motocross, hiking, surfing, skating, skydiving, regular diving, racing, waterskiing, and so on.
All of these activities would benefit from some or all of the metrics parent listed.
GoPro did indeed have first mover advantage, but it appears competitors are catching up now that the (niche) market has been validated.
If this were to be a hardware pursuit, you'd have to buy a bunch of sensors, all which have a price tag and their own limitations and issues. This might bring in $$, but also cause a lot of frustration that users would not find intriguing. Or, the sensors could be in the camera which would cause even more problems with power, heat, etc and the price tag.
Software, which can read data from a variety of sources such as GoPro, GPS, thermometer, whatever, and then integrate it all into a video timeline would be more practical. Then let the user overlay data onto the video using a variety of free and paid visual effects and templates.
GoPro should be working on a competitor to VIRBedit for this purpose. VIRBedit is great and doesn't require a Garmin VIRB cam etc. There is also http://www.traceup.com/ for snowboarding and surfing.
GoPro really missed an opportunity here, but it may not be too late.
Full disclosure, I work at Garmin.
The usability really needs work. The thing bellies up to the bar and just chews through batteries. On a motorcycle trip to Alaska I would have thrown the thing in a river had it not been for the fact that the fish don't need any more heavy metals to swim. For about the half-dozenth time that trip I missed nice video because it's impossible to know what state the camera is in without getting off the bike and looking at it. Sure, there's a light on the front of the camera, which is great when your subject wants to know that it's recording. However, the mountain goats were not very good at letting me know whether or not it was recording.
Most of all, there are no outstanding features that would make me buy a GoPro other than it's popular. Which is why I don't buy their stock (though I set a price alert, and then forgot to short it). As already pointed out elsewhere, there are other cameras that are probably equally good for considerably less money. I'll keep the one I got, it mostly does what I bought it for. But I'd never buy another one, nor recommend it to others.
Anyway, it looks like I kind of hijacked your reply; sorry. I'll reiterate: I wish I had purchased your company's product instead. :-)
The Xiaomi Yi is under $100 and can do 1080p60.
The Mobius ActionCam is even cheaper than the Xiaomi, and it's true that can only do 1080p30, but the very low price and the extremely small size (matchbox) make it perfect to carry around all the time on a keychain, or install it on a small drone without much lift capability.
I have both these cameras. I made a helmet mount for the Xiaomi and I carry it sometimes when riding my motorcycle. The Mobius recently went up on a model rocket and captured a PoV of the whole flight.
The Mobius ActionCam is surprisingly sharp for its price and size. But it's only 30fps and therefore quite choppy. Also has a bit of rolling shutter. Here it is riding an RC car and a model rocket. I'd say it's good enough for that sort of thing.
1: http://store.driftinnovation.com/cameras/drift-stealth-2 2: http://actioncameras.co.uk/
Techmoan has extremely detailed action camera reviews, with raw sample footage, and often takes them out for a ride (weather permitting, he's in the UK after all!). http://www.techmoan.com/blog/category/action-cameras
https://github.com/PJanisio/Xiaomi_Yi_autoexec
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/forums/yi-action-camera.153/
http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?45118-Xiaomi-Yi-Enha...
I turned denoise down to 1024, and the image is quite a bit sharper; that's great! There's a bit of noise visible now in low light (whereas before it was squeaky-clean), but it's comparable to my handheld camcorder, which is okay. I think they just made the decision that they don't want to show any noise, no matter what, and that impacted image sharpness out of the box.
I can't wait to test it under normal daylight. Also, the focus to infinity hack - since the camera appears to be optimally focused on a closer range.
EDIT:
Looks like VIRB Xe does 60fps at 1080p.
- $$ for special effects or special "data widgets" - have an online video editor that uses the "cloud" (so users are locked into their services and software). Sort of like Dropbox, but for GoPro videos and includes an awesome editor. Charge $$ for membership and/or space. - $$ for GoPro sensors.
Of course, I hate to have to lock my video into their servers... but that is how they would make $$.
The display was fancier but less functional, when I was handling the camera and pressing buttons it would dark out momentarily unlike v3, it had better specs but all stuff that doesn't matter anyway for the reasons you mention.
Sad to see that every great product like this seems to inevitably succumb to death by product management by piling feature on top of feature, instead of just doubling down on what makes it a great product in the first place.
1. Hit the plastic casing at exactly the wrong spot against a rock wall so it popped open and the camera flew into the river below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mVPQBgYrg
His videos are hilarious, he is always finding random stuff like wallets, go pros, i phones... in one video he found 3 go pros.
Even though you flipped it off, a drone does exactly this ;).
The thing I really want from GoPro is a camera with a battery that lasts more than 30 minutes. They always seem to be duds for me.
The GoPro software is horrendous in comparison as I could not even import my video files (one of 4,5 gb and another one of around 1,5) with over 25gb free space. Maybe it needed to convert before importing? In any case I just joined up the files with ffmpeg and imported in Virb and off I went, very recommended!
In terms of daily videos, the mobile phone is good enough for most people who want to capture moments.
My comment isn't meant to poo-poo the GoPro because the product definitely fits a niche, rather to say that it wouldn't surprise me to see GoPro hit a certain ceiling with just focusing on portable camcorders.
Otherwise, that's been my experience with GoPro as well.
[0] http://grammarist.com/usage/poo-pooh/
Edit: Downvote me all you want, it's the difference between literally taking a dump on something and figuratively doing so. Words matter. If that offends you, maybe you aren't as open to knowledge as you think.
Also, since I see no reason why grammarist is more trustworthy than wiki, you're not even necessarily right: [from wiki] "A pooh-pooh (also styled as poo-poo)..."
They'd need to considerably improve the quality and features if they want people to continue upgrading.
* higher framerates for 4K: 60p, 120p
* better battery life, 1h30m is sometimes plenty, and sometimes a little short
* better (or in GoPro's case, any) image stabilization and vibration reduction
* smaller size and weight, new mounting options
If I were still jumping I'd use a Hero Session because the form factor is much smaller (rather than just slimmer).
What DZ do you jump at?
I used to jump at Eden North in Canada, but I'm moving to North California so I have to pick a new one :) Gotta love a Cessna Caravan going to 13K in under 9 minutes!
Where I contracted last year, this was my experience. The team I was on had a GoPro, and we used it no more than twice in a 9-month period -- and I'm not even sure if the second time actually happened, as I personally only ran the first go-around.
I see 3 different kind of comments for this entry:
-A comment about an opinion of a GoPro camera... this reflects on "I would not buy another because".
-A comment about internal politics about the company...
-People stating "I have one" why should I have another?
with that said, most of them are about "I have one" or "I don't see a reason to buy another", the market has got to a point where most of the people who have bought one doesn't see a reason and the company have not provide one.
How is possible that no one on GoPro had done a market investigation prior to set quarter goals? for me this is a failure of estimating sales where there were no sales to be performed.
The real question here is "What is this new feature that would make our users want to buy a new one?" that would reflect on stronger sales?
The only good thing about the GoPro is the lens/sensor and the case/mount system. The camera itself needs a lot of work.
* I'd want a screen on it (I think for the last one you can buy one, but the fact that I'm not sure tells a lot)
* I'd want the interface to be easier to navigate (to setup the time, resolution, fps, etc... it's a pain)
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/21/shred-video-turns-hours-of-...
There's also about 80 open positions there now (I didn't count internships). https://gopro.com/careers/jobs
They've been solidly profitable the last four quarters, and the three years before that - $220 million in net income over that time. They have $500m in cash and zero debt.
How bright is their future? That's a great debate to have. And that's an entirely different question than: are or were they a real business, and will they still be around in a year (obvious answer: yes).
That may have been the intended purpose, but some of their most widely covered stuff was closer to this. Like the ruckus with Ford Motor Company.
1. Advertise open positions that aren't really open
2. Collect a bunch of resumes
3. When a position opens up 6 months later, offer it to someone
who hasn't been able to find a job in 6 months...?
This kind of recruitment is commonplace, especially in large "always hiring" companies. Its sometimes known as talent pipelines. However in all of the companies I am aware of, it will be made very clear to the candidate that they are applying to a pipeline, not to an actual open position. Doing otherwise would piss off candidates, harm the employer's brand, and likely be counter productive.
Its also common to ask candidates to "register" in order to be informed of future openings. Again though, its made clear that you are not applying for an actual position.
However agencies, particularly smaller ones (as opposed to actual employers), are well known for posting "bait and switch" openings which are not real jobs at all but simply to try and troll for talent.
1. Advertise open positions that aren't really open
2. Get a feel of the market and see how many candidates you get and what salary they ask
3. Gain brand awareness because candidates are used to your name
4. Test the effectiveness of your hiring/advertising channels without actually hiring anybody
5. When you actually need to hire somebody you already know what salary people ask, you know what kind of people will find your ad and you focus only on current CVs
I took it with a half-dose of "not my fault" when the process fell through when news of this news article started to come out, since this wasn't my first time at interviewing with a company shortly before financial troubles become publicly known.
1)first mover advantage
2)Smart marketing with viral videos of athletes in various extreme sports
3)Selling proprietary accessories
However now that some time has passed and competitors have appeared GoPro is losing ground on all types of users
1)Casual GoPro users already have one and are not going to upgrade
2)Pro users are turning to models with better form factor (sony, contour etc)
The Sony action cameras come with built-in video stabilization a feature that GoPro cameras do not have yet.
But beyond its brand strength, has there been anything preventing the commoditization of the GoPro product?
Plus, they aren't really innovators.
Even simple improvements like battery life or a better remote would probably drive a lot of upgrades.
In my OPINION GoPro's problem is that they haven't diversified in any significant way. Here's a list of products GoPro sells: GoPros (and accessories). That's it.
But this area has hardly been standing still. We've seen drone-cameras take off, including the ingenius ones which follow you (e.g. Lily), we've seen those throw-up 360 degree cameras, smaller versions (e.g. Mokacam), and a near constant stream of less expensive generics which do 90% of what a GoPro can do (and can even use GoPro's accessories).
GoPro had a MASSIVE market lead and still does, but they're squandered much of it on reproducing the same product over and over until the market is saturated.
I can't imagine I'd have the same confidence in a cheaper camera with a waterproof case add-on that I do in my GoPro. Also, the $130 I paid for the entry-level model was a good price.
Faddy product + long term displacement by random Chinese companies for 1/8 price == fail.
Now, if they were to vertically integrate and buy a cut-rate vodka distillery business \s
IMO, GoPro's biggest issue is usability, and it's an area where they could fight back against cheap knockoffs. GoPro cameras are frustrating to use, and editing hours of footage is not something most people enjoy doing. A commenter above suggested most owners use the GoPro a few times and then forget about it. Usability is, IMO, why.
We've seen drone-cameras take off, including the
ingenius ones which follow you (e.g. Lily)
GoPro is of course trying to diversify. The question is, what will their selling point be as the marketplace gets crowded? Will brand+distribution be enough?
And there are a gaggle of imitators at the bottom of the market (various Chinese brands) and the high end (Sony, Panasonic, etc).
When it turned out Satya got the CEO seat, rumours of Tony joining GoPro immediately surfaced - and turned out to be true.
I am pretty sure GoPro execs were hoping Tony Bates would make GoPro the mainstream success that Skype was. He did... except Skype was never profitable - but it was also not publicly traded, so this wasn't apparent, and never really an issue.
I do wonder if GoPro would have done better to appoint any other CEO, but personally I never even noticed any change of direction before or after Tony Bates being the CEO, despite the massive hiring spree that followed. Mind you, the same happened at Skype after the Microsoft aquisition - except Microsoft easily footed the bill.
In the light of things I do think GoPro did make the mistake of hiring an overly ambitious CEO, who hired too fast and too soon, without the financial results following.
a. Cameras freeze when are switched on and plugged in USB f PC. Have to remove battery to unfreeze them. b. Not able to explicitly sync time on cameras with Studio c. Not open in providing lens specs (it was proprietary information what kind of fisheye distortion happens), no focal length, no sensor size, nothing d. UDP streaming is proprietary e. Whatever you do, you need the Go Pro app, not possible to control from PC, no documentation f. Not developer friendly (no REST API for developers) g. Camera acts as a Wi-Fi router, you cannot put multiple of them in the same network as your PC. h. Unintuitive UI in camera, too many clicks to achieve your goal. i. For streaming, they forgot to tell you that you need a Micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter and a USB frame grabber, hidden extra costs.
big disappointment as I really need a decent solution that will run for many hours at a time...
Now the warranty is over and the customer service is still useless with their stock sentences.
So he need a new one and I'm guessing it's not gonna be a GoPro.
However, for the casual user (not doing action shots), you've got a point. What use would my mom have for a GoPro that her iPhone can't do?