GoPro shutting down drones and layoffs.

G

Greg_E

Veteran
Saw this in my email today, thought it would be worth posting:

StudioDaily said:
It was a rough year for GoPro, but today it became clear how rough — the venerable action cam maker said it is cutting more than 250 staffers worldwide and will duck out of the “untenable” aerial vehicle market after selling off its remaining stock of Karma drones. The job cuts will bring GoPro’s workforce down from 1,254 employees as of September 20, 2017, to fewer than 1,000, the company said...
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http://www.studiodaily.com/2018/01/gopro-regroups-cutting-staff-20-shutting-drone-business/
 
GoPro, as an independent entity, is done. Someone bigger will snap up their intellectual property and patents and that will be it. Too bad but they failed to execute well and made a lot of fiscally bad decisions, and didn't react to the market and capitalize on their strengths.
 
The only value now in the company is the Brand Name.

Everyone I know refers to their small action cameras as 'GoPros' even if its some awful cheap thing from the hypermarket. The Hero6 isn't anything special anymore so why pay the premium.

The new Fusion camera does show an awful lot of promise, great video quality, good stitching - they just need to lower the price and get it in people hands, before the $199 chinese variant hits Walmart.

Its the new thing, filming in 360... and if they get it right they could be again a leader in the 360 action arena, but time isn't on their side I feel.
 
I think 360º video is over, just like 3D video is over. In the sense that it will stay niche at best.

Their action cams are great but way too expensive for most people (I settled for a Xiaomi). And they have great IP that they never used (they didn't push CineForm into third party high-end camera makers). Just forget about growth, cash-in all you can while going down as slowly as possible, and be done. Or get sold, which is just as good.
 
Samuel H said:
I think 360º video is over, just like 3D video is over. In the sense that it will stay niche at best.
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...I'm not sure I would agree with this because up until now the image quality of the consumer 360 cameras has been terrible, largely because of the extremely low bit-rates and poor image compression. This new GoPro Fusion camera currently has the best looking 360 consumer camera image quality available, but the software end of things is still miles from where it should be. Too slow and too awkward to use.

I do agree that 360 is a niche market, so GoPro needs a lot more than a win in the 360 market to keep the company afloat. GoPro needs to innovate their main GoPro action-camera product line like the way DJI has been pushing the boundaries in the consumer drone market. ( if I was buying a consumer drone today I would only consider DJI right now, but I don't know if I would buy a GoPro if I wanted a mini action-camera )
 
James Carpenter said:
Yup, Google would agree with you.
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I would expect that there's more money to be made in the 360 consumer market than the 360 pro market, and right now the $700 GoPro Fusion camera in one of the best 360 consumer cameras on the market. ( rendering currently takes 1 hour for 1 minute of footage, so this has to be improved for the format to be viable for the average consumer )
 
I call them action cams, or by their model name... But I've had bad dealings with GoPro (long ago) and wouldn't buy their products.

Hopefully someone will buy Cineform and make it good again (available again), such a waste for a good codec.

GoPro started the action camera war, lead for a good amount of time, and finally it looks like in the end they lost. It was a good idea back in the day, but too many other products out now that do as much or more for a lot less money. Look at Sony, Panasonic, and JVC... They never really embraced the fight and maybe they were wiser for not investing so heavily. Right now I'm using $80 Mobius Mini cameras, might look into Yi as well (but might not).
 
Cineform is already available; GoPro released it as open source, and the spec is also open, and under SMPTE's purview.
 
IMHO, GoPro is done, we are just seeing the death throes. 360 video was/is a fad, I am now convinced after shooting, stitching and editing it. It will continue to be around more than 3D but generally, it's an effect and a PITA one at that. Useful for many non-storytelling and special venue applications but as a mainline form of visual communication, I think most of us can agree that its a bust. For those who are into first person experiences, we already have gaming but most people don't want to wear VR goggles and be chained to a couch or desk to watch a film, documentary or even a music video.
 
I think 360 will live on and thrive in gaming, but I agree; the whole concept of "cinematic VR" failed to recognize that "cinematic" implies "tells a story" and just got too obsessed with the medium at the expense of the content.

Since GoPro's last few camera "updates" have been so minimal and the Karma just didn't have sophisticated enough flight controls or enough power to come even close to the Mavic Pro, it's been obvious to me that the writing's been on the wall for a while, though I've been hoping that GoPro had something up its sleeve that would avert that. They were friendly enough at NAB.

I guess not... Sigh.
 
It's probably my fault...I bought a GoPro Karma and Hero 5 Black for Christmas!!

On a serious note, I'm satisfied with the Hero 5 Black camera, and the Karma Grip...what a great gimbal/stabilizer. The drone itself is very nice, but without the other modes similar to DJI's, it couldn't compete. The truth is, it's a good drone...but like all high-tech gear, the measurebators will pick the specs apart and DJI will out-spec any other consumer drone. I was even proud to buy American!

I have a small window to either return or keep the Karma system...I'm still trying to decide. In a vacuum, the Karma drone is a solid machine, and I like the GoPro accessories/system. In the real world, I see drones with better specs for not much more money. Opinions?
 
I agree with the comments that pure 360 video is pretty much dead from a viewing experience - who wants to using a headset, or wobble their phones around, I don't find it immersive at all. Gaming for sure, casual viewing no.

But all these new cameras (Fusion included) which provide the ability to 're-direct' footage after taking it, changing the perspective, changing the narrative - I think is the next new thing for the action market they are in, from BMX riders showing a forward facing view to showing the riders behind them etc.. all with one camera and in theory all edited on your phone.

I still think GoPro have the advantage of their name and distribution channels to make it work, and at the moment the Fusion to me, seems the best one on the market at the moment also. Its just too expensive and the software too slow to make it work.
 
I have the GoPro 4 Black. Avoided the 5. Was thinking about 6 and the handle but didn't pick up. However, the pace of upgrade in 2 years is minimal. They should have launched 5.7K in the Go Pro6. They didn't even increase the data rate.

With the GoPro 5 they introduced clean output through mini HDMI. If they would have increased the resolutions and data rate, then more people would have used it. So the innovation didn't happen in the right areas. They spent money in suddenly spreading into many product categories and neglected their core GoPros. No wonder the company is in death throes. I always wanted GoPro to remain good in its category.

Ever since my Phantom plunged from the air like a rocket, I have left flying myself and not bought any DJI stuff. My partner flies it and I only direct. I am still using the Solo 3DR with Go Pro 4 in 2.7K 50p mode. Will continue doing it for some time till I buy a high end copter. However, 3DR has also gone bankrupt. Not sure what will be my future copter.
 
indiawilds said:
I have the GoPro 4 Black. Avoided the 5. Was thinking about 6 and the handle but didn't pick up. However, the pace of upgrade in 2 years is minimal. They should have launched 5.7K in the Go Pro6. They didn't even increase the data rate.
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I think GoPro got caught up in the K wars and neglected image quality in favor of bean-counter optimized specs...

Ever since my Phantom plunged from the air like a rocket, I have left flying myself and not bought any DJI stuff. My partner flies it and I only direct. I am still using the Solo 3DR with Go Pro 4 in 2.7K 50p mode. Will continue doing it for some time till I buy a high end copter. However, 3DR has also gone bankrupt. Not sure what will be my future copter.
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3DR was a bummer. The company is back, but it's mostly focused on industrial aerials; things like site surveys and that sort of thing rather than on film, because there's a lot more money in it now that DJI is pretty much taken over the drone industry. IMO the ZenMuse x7 + Inspire 2 combo makes it redundant to fly a Red or Alexa Mini, because I'd rather replace a $3000 camera than a $40,000 camera if I had to.
 
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