GoPro has discontinued its developer program • Hacker News Board

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#21

Post by oceanswave » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:17 AM UTC

rgbrenner wrote: post #10

danso wrote: post #8

GoPro's IPO and initial success was inspiring because it didn't seem any kind of specialized camera/video hardware company could exist outside of the smartphone umbrella -- especially after Flip [0] got bought up not long after the first iPhone. But it seems like there was always going to be a hard ceiling for GoPro. Not just because of the continued improvement of smartphone portability and camera features, but beca…

I agree, but disagree there was a hard ceiling for GoPro. Companies may have an initial success.. but the rest of the world never stands still while they rake in money. Especially not in tech, which gets cheaper every year and can be manufactured fairly easy by competitors. GoPro had an initial success with their camera.. and it was their duty to expand beyond that into other lines of business and diversify their rev…

Not only that, they haven’t kept up in camera tech, but still charge a premium price. Built-in mechanical stabilization, additional sensors such as gps and altimeter, color capture could have justified a premium price. Expansion into the drone market came as too little too late, and the recall hurt that effort immensely. Seems like there are video applicstions outside the ‘action cam’ domain - security, monitoring, etc that players such as nest have gotten into, granted that’s outside their X-treme DNA.

So yeah, a sale is probably best for them, but outside their brand, what kind of IP do they really have that boosts their value...

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#22

Post by stryk » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:21 AM UTC

chrsstrm wrote: post #17

radium3d wrote: post #11

GoPro could turn themselves around if they supported their customer community by opening up their hardware interfaces more and allowed more robust fine-grain control over aperature, shutter, iso, white balance via usb and wifi/Bluetooth with API support so we developers can create sale-generating software that makes their fantastic hardware more useful. It won't hurt them to open these controls up. Also make streamin…

Except it's already clear they want customer lock-in on their products. You can't use the remote app without being logged in (which I can't even get to connect, but that's another complaint). Something about some cloud service that costs $5/month to use. Their remote app is clearly the funnel to sell this service, so why would they open up their API? At this point I'm just going to start buying Chinese knock-offs tha…

FWIW, I can heartily recommend SJCAM -- their build quality is great for a Chinese knock-off and the resulting image/video quality is really really good for the price of the hardware. However, be careful when on eBay/aliExpress I've actually seen other vendors knocking off the knock-offs.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#23

Post by drdeadringer » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:23 AM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #5

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #2

Why would they do this?

They're finished as a company. They never were able to innovate beyond "it's an HD camera with wifi", and low priced competition ate them up.

I had applied and interviewed with them right about when this was breaking, and it's on my list of "dodged a bullet". The manager even mentioned that there was the very real possibility that the budget requisition for why I was there might be pulled soon... and it's clear how that turned out.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#24

Post by TaylorGood » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:43 AM UTC

Gopro would’ve been a beautiful lifestyle business had they stayed private and only did cameras. The weight of scaling post-ICO sank them.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#25

Post by JBReefer » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:46 AM UTC

TaylorGood wrote: post #24

Gopro would’ve been a beautiful lifestyle business had they stayed private and only did cameras. The weight of scaling post-ICO sank them.

Do you mean post IPO? Internet funbux should have nothing to do with GoPro - they sell a real product that actually has value.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#26

Post by rgbrenner » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:51 AM UTC

oceanswave wrote: post #21

rgbrenner wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but disagree there was a hard ceiling for GoPro. Companies may have an initial success.. but the rest of the world never stands still while they rake in money. Especially not in tech, which gets cheaper every year and can be manufactured fairly easy by competitors. GoPro had an initial success with their camera.. and it was their duty to expand beyond that into other lines of business and diversify their rev…

Not only that, they haven’t kept up in camera tech, but still charge a premium price. Built-in mechanical stabilization, additional sensors such as gps and altimeter, color capture could have justified a premium price. Expansion into the drone market came as too little too late, and the recall hurt that effort immensely. Seems like there are video applicstions outside the ‘action cam’ domain - security, monitoring, e…

Yes, I agree.

Another great avenue for them would have been activity trackers (like fitbit), cyclometers, and/or gps gear for hiking/marine/air (like garmin).

They've really left a lot unexplored. Instead of more cameras, other gear, etc... they tried one version of a drone they had to recall for power issues, then almost immediately discontinued it. That's a pretty low-key effort for a multi-billion dollar 16 year old company

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#27

Post by mistersquid » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:53 AM UTC

dessant wrote: post #12

Off topic, but if anyone from their marketing team reads this, one of the activities[1] on the HERO6 Black sales page[2] is a surefire way to crack your skull open. [1] https://i.imgur.com/ZuOmIrV.jpg [2] https://shop.gopro.com/EMEA/cameras/hero6-black/CHDHX-601-ma...

That promotional video is fantastic. Beautiful scenery, photogenic people, shots of pristine nature, even the family visiting a theme park inspires a primal kind of longing and deep pride in how awesome it is to be an incarnated human.

The score--Odesza's "A Moment Apart" from the album of the same name--contributes to the emotion in no small way.

Given the discontinuation of the developer program is in line with the gradual decline of the GoPro brand, the video is at once sublime and forlorn and I can't help but feel GoPro's fate is to be lamented.

One can almost read in the GoPro's plight the unavoidable fate of humankind and the planet on which we live.

OK, I know all of that is a bit overwrought, and this is my first exposure to Odesza. But I was so affected that I decided to buy the album and, I know, I'm going to put it on repeat for the next month or so.

Thanks for the link.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#28

Post by paulcole » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:58 AM UTC

rgbrenner wrote: post #10

danso wrote: post #8

GoPro's IPO and initial success was inspiring because it didn't seem any kind of specialized camera/video hardware company could exist outside of the smartphone umbrella -- especially after Flip [0] got bought up not long after the first iPhone. But it seems like there was always going to be a hard ceiling for GoPro. Not just because of the continued improvement of smartphone portability and camera features, but beca…

I agree, but disagree there was a hard ceiling for GoPro. Companies may have an initial success.. but the rest of the world never stands still while they rake in money. Especially not in tech, which gets cheaper every year and can be manufactured fairly easy by competitors. GoPro had an initial success with their camera.. and it was their duty to expand beyond that into other lines of business and diversify their rev…

>GoPro could easily stand for pro-level/quality outdoor gear.

The same could be said for pro-level/quality outdoor gear. Why aren’t Patagonia, Orvis, and Salomon making a run at the camera industry? Is that their failure?

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#29

Post by chrsstrm » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 3:59 AM UTC

stryk wrote: post #22

chrsstrm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it's already clear they want customer lock-in on their products. You can't use the remote app without being logged in (which I can't even get to connect, but that's another complaint). Something about some cloud service that costs $5/month to use. Their remote app is clearly the funnel to sell this service, so why would they open up their API? At this point I'm just going to start buying Chinese knock-offs tha…

FWIW, I can heartily recommend SJCAM -- their build quality is great for a Chinese knock-off and the resulting image/video quality is really really good for the price of the hardware. However, be careful when on eBay/aliExpress I've actually seen other vendors knocking off the knock-offs.

I think I was looking at SJCAM and also Wimius, which Amazon has a full camera, case, batteries, and accessory kit for $70 right now. I mean at that price point your biggest investment is going to be in class U3 micro SD cards.

Re: GoPro has discontinued its developer program

#30

Post by culturestate » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 4:02 AM UTC

winslett wrote: post #4

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're getting ready to sell themselves. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gopro-shares-pare-huge-los...

I've got my money on Redbull buying them.

GoPro has a huge professional market as well; you might be surprised at the amount of footage you see on TV and in movies that's shot on a GoPro. If I had to guess on an acquisition I might look at Canon or Nikon, but the reality is probably PE.