GoPro has discontinued its developer program

Post by eropple » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 8:20 AM UTC

nerflad wrote: post #40

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…

Wow, I've been passively interested in getting a GoPro camera for a long time, but knowing their remote control requires a cloud service (I thought it was local wifi) is a total dealbreaker. Same with Hue lights. It is absolutely ridiculous for the customer to be locked out of their own hardware.

Post by sdoering » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 8:27 AM UTC

eropple wrote: post #61

nerflad wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I've been passively interested in getting a GoPro camera for a long time, but knowing their remote control requires a cloud service (I thought it was local wifi) is a total dealbreaker. Same with Hue lights. It is absolutely ridiculous for the customer to be locked out of their own hardware.

Hue lights do not require a cloud service. It is an optional way to control your lights from outside your local network (only the base station talks to the internet).

Post by opticalflow » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 9:02 AM UTC

richiezc wrote: post #59

atomical wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you show me a Chinese company that is making an action camera that can shoot 2K60 that is waterproof and small form factor like GoPro?

i assume you mean 4k60? the yi 4k+ also does that but no it isn't waterproof by itself, however you can see the hero 6 got a $100 price cut because of the stiff competition

Post by bringtheaction » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 10:43 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.

Post by acjohnson55 » Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 11:04 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…