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GoPro warned it may not survive

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Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#41

Post by canucker2016 »

ge96 wrote: post #27
fma wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you refer to the Go Pro MAX2...I bought one because per reviews it was actually pretty solid. Costco sold it so I could return if I didn't like it. My prior camera was the Samsung 360 - which is discontinued. Been fairly happy with the Max 2 - I do mostly outdoor shooting. I can't compare it to the Insta360 or DJI but the reviews says Go Pro MAX2 is superior in outdoors, daylight which is my main use case. S…

No it's Mission 1 Pro ILS it's like a DSLR/mirrorless (as in metal locking ring) pretty legit

But there's no autofocus support from the camera, so there's a lot more work to get/keep things in focus.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#42

Post by acgourley »

Lots of bashing here so I feel compelled to say my piece that GoPros, despite their flaws, are still the best action camera in the market for many people, including me. They have a powerful set of customizations simple not possible on the their competitors via the Labs firmware. Not that DJI couldn't do that if they wanted to, but to this day, they don't.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#43

Post by JumpCrisscross »

camillomiller wrote: post #29
nikisweeting wrote: post #18

Good riddance, GoPro squandered their market lead for many years and shipped bafflingly mediocre software that seemed to add more bugs with every generation. 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?

So US Ai schizophrenia kills an American company and you’re hoping two Chinese companies (one of which the US has banned on fabricated accusations) take its place. Man, what a timeline

> US Ai schizophrenia

I bought an Insta360 before the AI mania because the software was simpler, price cheaper and reviews around build quality more positive.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#44

Post by ge96 »

canucker2016 wrote: post #41
ge96 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's Mission 1 Pro ILS it's like a DSLR/mirrorless (as in metal locking ring) pretty legit

But there's no autofocus support from the camera, so there's a lot more work to get/keep things in focus.

True, there are modding groups that take apart action cams to be able to attach a cool cine lens on it for example, now you don't have to mod.

ex. https://youtu.be/7qTvllQMTMA?si=ruhj2BwYqa_efFBu&t=250

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#45

Post by stouset »

geerlingguy wrote: post #40
nubinetwork wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> overheats 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?

They even made them a little bigger, and they still overheated... 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.

Ironically, cold also trashes their battery life.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#46

Post by bsimpson »

rconti wrote: post #34
camillomiller wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So US Ai schizophrenia kills an American company and you’re hoping two Chinese companies (one of which the US has banned on fabricated accusations) take its place. Man, what a timeline

GoPro has been squandering their lead for like 15 years.

I feel like I heard this same rumor a decade+ ago.

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.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#47

Post by gonzalohm »

ink_13 wrote: post #21

Curious parallel to iRobot (Roomba): first mover in new product segment, became genericized name for things in that segment, in the end, (possibly in GoPro's case) could not compete in that segment

It's interesting because in software it's usually the opposite. First to market is the winner even with an inferior product. See whatsapp and telegram

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#48

Post by metadat »

gonzalohm wrote: post #47
ink_13 wrote: post #21

Curious parallel to iRobot (Roomba): first mover in new product segment, became genericized name for things in that segment, in the end, (possibly in GoPro's case) could not compete in that segment

It's interesting because in software it's usually the opposite. First to market is the winner even with an inferior product. See whatsapp and telegram

Not a great comparison; those apps have serious network effects.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#49

Post by cogman10 »

ink_13 wrote: post #21

Curious parallel to iRobot (Roomba): first mover in new product segment, became genericized name for things in that segment, in the end, (possibly in GoPro's case) could not compete in that segment

Basically the problem with American corporate thinking.

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.

Re: GoPro warned it may not survive

#50

Post by thot_experiment »

suncemoje wrote: post #36
thot_experiment wrote: post #9

They certainly wouldn't survive if capitalism was working as intended. GoPro is one of the most institutionally arrogant companies around, they seem unable to understand that they have competition. (Which to be fair they absolutely didn't for the first few years of their existence). In 2026 they make a mediocre product with horrible software, and even worse customer service. In contrast, I've smashed the absolute shi…

I'm curious as to what they could have done at what point in time to avoid this? Or was it "unavoidable"? 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!

I think comparing companies to Apple is kinda silly as they're unique. They're in a position of such market dominance that they can afford institutional arrogance.

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.

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