GoPro warned it may not survive(thenextweb.com) |
GoPro warned it may not survive(thenextweb.com) |
This is also a lesson in failed leadership. Woodman is a CEO who founded the company. He has a controlling share and has never had to answer to a real board in his tenure. The company lost 99% of its value from its peak under him. The brand might still have value but his legacy is basically a Greek tragedy.
I hope Insta360, DJI, and many more competitors spring up out of their ashes. Assuming fast microsd cards for writes, how much DDR RAM do they really need to buffer videos during recording? 4gb? 8gb?
> wait no not like that
Americans slowly discovering this isn't the 80s anymore and that China is beating them at their own game, delightful
I bought an Insta360 before the AI mania because the software was simpler, price cheaper and reviews around build quality more positive.
Make a great product, stop innovating, and then spend the rest of the life of you company trying to extra as many dollars as possible from the first mover goodwill. Spend as few of those dollar possible innovating or improving the product. Or if you are innovating, it's in ways to break your old products to try and trick your customers into buying more.
The core of the problem is that those who own businesses only care about extracting money from stock and investment. The best way to do that isn't making a good product. In fact, it's practically the opposite.
Damn thing overheats constantly. 4K60 never works for more than 15-or-so minutes even with an AC vent aimed directly at it. 1080p60 is its limit for any long-duration recording, and even then it still overheats from time to time if I'm in a particularly hot environment. Made me realize why so much of their marketing shows it being used underwater and skydiving lol
This is the biggest thing that I've constantly heard about GoPros... I get that they're small and portable, but what good are they if you can almost never use them?
All because they had to have the top line specs for video, pushing the little SoC to the limit while recording. The heat makes battery life worse, too.
The software is bad too: WiFi hotspot that disconnects from your usual phone WiFi. Now sync to the app. Nag about a cloud subscription. Now choose photos and sync to your phone gallery. No thanks.
Since everything is processed on camera/phone I hope I can still use it even if they go under.
Retro styled cameras are only gaining in popularity; the competition is increasing, but Fujifilm has a big head start.
And still many concepts to try out. We have yet to see true manual focus confirmation in stills mode (something a retro nikon zf has been praised for), or an autofocus capable lens with a distance scale (leica q style).
In contrast, I've smashed the absolute shit out of my insta360 lenses 3 times now (total cost to replace lens 3x $50), and when I smashed the screen to smithereens, they fixed it, OUT OF WARRANTY, for $50 including parts and labor, and they paid for shipping.
There is zero reason to buy a gopro, they don't have a single compelling product and HOLY FUCK the software is bad compared to insta360.
DJI and Insta360 offer compelling products. And budget, lower quality 1080p-4k action cams got eaten by Akaso and other clones.
One time, I bought a couch online, and the company kept stringing me along with "we're behind but it's definitely coming soon" emails until I was well past my credit card's chargeback deadline. But when I eventually called the credit card company, they happily refunded me anyway. Now I will always, always use American Express for large purchases unless I have no other choice.
Amazon used to tell their employees a story about how a customer had his PlayStation stolen off the porch. He called Amazon, and they immediately shipped him a new one, overnight, with no hassle. The customer was a prominent New York Times business columnist, and he immediately wrote a glowing article about how amazing Amazon was, which was hugely impactful to Amazon. It informed the company's "customer obsessed" view for years (until eventually there was just too much money to be made in becoming a marketplace for whatever fake stuff people want to sell).
"Underpromise and overdeliver" is bad marketing advice, but it's fantastic customer retention advice.
Apple managed to stay ahead of the competition for years now, but I guess the iPhone and Macs are just more complex products and revolve around an ecosystem, so not really comparable I guess. Still, I'm fascinated by the GoPro "case". I had a Hero 3 back in the days and loved it!
However, it's very illustrative in this situation because I think GoPro made the mistake of thinking they were Apple, and at their outset they were compared to whatever other dross was on the market. Unfortunately it went to their head (almost certainly they were run by MBAs instead of product people or engineers, or anyone who would actually use an action camera seriously) and they completely lost sight of what their product even was.
I think it's completely avoidable, they could have just kept trying to make good products instead of whatever subscription service bullshit they attempted. They saw they had market dominance and so they tried to rape their customers as best they could because they didn't see the customers as having a choice. Don't do that. They cashed in on their market position for short term gains and it destroyed their future.
I used my friends Ace Pro 2 and the menu was great but kinda clunky compared to GoPro.
No allegiance to any brand, but the Mission series software is fast and the footage, especially slowmo, is breathtaking
Hahahahahahahhahaha. It's rotten fish heads all the way to the top.
When I was a pimply face youth I used to take calls for a multi-tenant call center in bumfuck nowhere and we somehow were given the contract to take tier 0 catch-and-throw calls for some MSP out in Florida that did contracted things like call center software solutions. (Puzzle piece for a logo. Out of Miami.)
Holy hell, the people that called from GoPro were awful. Absolutely rude, arrogant management. (And the MSP client themselves weren't a walk in the park either, and I swear they had it in for us alongside GoPro.)
Not a rumor when announced on a public market, but it's not the first time they've been perceived as a precarious has-been.