Railfan Technology > GoPro in trouble

It seems GoPro is in trouble financially.  Recent prices cuts (up to 50%) may not stimulate sales enough to stay competitive.  Several action cams have entered the market since GoPro, many are exact copies.  You can buy a GoPro look-alike for less than a hundred dollars now, I think many are the same as GoPro, just re-labeled, such is the way of Chinese manufacturing.  The "Villian" from Monster is also quite a bit cheaper now, so what's a guy to do?  Which one will win?  Is there a lesson in copywriting here?

Ed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/16 23:03 by Auburn_Ed.

Hate to hear that. Love my GP.

Ken Pryor
Flat Rock, IL
http://kpryor.rrpicturearchives.net/

Auburn_Ed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It seems GoPro is in trouble financially.  Recent
> prices cuts (up to 50%) may not stimulate sales
> enough to stay competitive.  Several action cams
> have entered the market since GoPro, many are
> exact copies.  You can by a GoPro look-alike for
> less than a hundred dollars now, I think many are
> the same as GoPro, just re-labeled, such is the
> way of Chinese manufacturing.  The "Villian" from
> Monster is also quite a bit cheaper now, so what's
> a guy to do?  Which one will win?  Is there a
> lesson in copywriting here?
>
> Ed

Patents and copyrights can't help in this case because GoPro didn't invent the miniature cameras themselves. They certainly did a great job identifying the market, and selling a great action camera package. In terms of intellectual property (IP), they acquired Cineform, primarily for their video codec. According to wikipedia, their focus is to become a "media company." That means they plan to stay in business selling content. No mention of any strategies to protect their IP on the cameras themselves, probably because they know they can't.

I notch this as another Wall St. hysteria - they are in trouble financially, because they can no longer meet "growth" expectations. Had they stayed a private company with no shareholder scrutiny, their "troubles" wouldn't have made national news - just local (in the Bay Area, where the HQ is).

I wish them well, and hope the consumers remain loyal to the GoPro name.