Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#161

Post by jaapz » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

tomaskafka wrote: post #105

Robotbeat wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GoPro is a US company designed in U.S. with manufacturing in Thailand, China, and Mexico. Insta360 is a Chinese company designed in Shenzhen and built there, too. People think this doesn’t matter, but GoPros are used all over in aerospace. If we replaced the brand with Insta360, that puts a big attack vector all over the place. A similar pattern happened with drones with DJI, intentionally killing all non-Chinese dro…

Simon Wardley has been shouting this from the rooftops, including detailed per industry timelines when China will take over, in 2015.

[flagged]

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#162

Post by loloquwowndueo » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

radiorental wrote: post #126

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting that you mention Garmin - they’re a good example of pivoting from your original market (standalone gps units for cars) once you see a nimble competitor eating away at it (gps-enabled smartphones). Garmin would be dead if they had held fast on the standalone GPS market.

I'm not sure you are fully aware of the markets that Garmin is in. When it comes to marine, aviation and offroad, you simply cannot run a gps app on a phone. E.g. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/aviation/general/

Thanks! I’m clearly not aware.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#163

Post by nikisweeting » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:14 PM UTC

jaapz wrote: post #160

gchamonlive wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads to me like it's free market doing its job, if you think of countries as companies. US just needs to step up its game.

It's not really a free market when one country is heavily subsidizing it's industries

and the US famously never subsidizes any of its industries...

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#164

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #112

sen wrote: post #13

I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get. You can be more expensive if you’re better, or you can be worse if you’re cheaper, but they’re both the downsides while living purely off brand recognition. They also blew up in a time where there wasn’t any real competition. Sony had action cameras but they were bulkier and exp…

I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get. Sounds very similar to another US company - Garmin. They are still popular, but have been raising prices a lot every generation, because for a long time there was no real competition [1]. At this point, Garmin watches that have mapping support have an introduction price of >600…

About 10 years ago I was looking for a rugged small camera. Found some by Garmin that were on a closeout sale. Excellent quality, never owned a GoPro so can't compare but I used them in similar applications and they never had an issue.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#165

Post by dismalaf » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:17 PM UTC

rr808 wrote: post #16

I'm just surprised that an American brand making electronics lasted this long. Even Japanese companies are giving up. No one can compete with China. Apple somehow reigns supreme still. Anyone else?

> Apple somehow reigns supreme still.

Largely because they've been producing in China for quite awhile. Now India too.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#166

Post by crote » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

skippyfish wrote: post #141

crote wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GoPro has always been explicitly marketed as an action camera - to the point that people for a long time called any action camera "a GoPro". Comparing them to smartphones or mirrorless cameras is completely missing their point: nobody would buy them for regular point-and-shoot activity. You buy a GoPro to mount onto a dirt bike, or on your helmet during caving, or on a chest harness during a skydive, or on the fr…

No, that's precisely my point. It's only an action camera, and you assert that the market is massive, but I don't see it. Just how many millions of units can you sell to YouTuber spelunkers, YouTuber mountain bikers, YouTuber paragliders, YouTuber divers, and so on? The reality is that even in "action" situations - the situations where normal people want to capture memories of hiking, biking, boating, etc - normal ca…

> Just how many millions of units can you sell

Just how many millions of people do those outdoors activities?

You can't survive selling solely to YouTubers, that's definitely true, but you don't need to. Just like tennis companies don't need to survive solely on selling to Grand Slam competitors. Plenty of people are willing to spend a few hundred bucks on their hobbies if it gives them nice pictures and videos for InstaSnapBookTok and to show off at parties.

And no, normal cameras and smartphones are not enough. They'll do for a casual hike, but they will not survive being attached to a mountain bike going downhill and being shaken to bits. I found out the hard way, it is how I killed my first smartphone. If you disagree: why not try it out yourself with a $1500 flagship phone and report back how it went?

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#167

Post by dismalaf » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #34

haunter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mac Mini will be made in Houston (they already make their own servers there) https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/02/apple-accelerates-us-...

Is it common in American factories to have US flags hanging on the walls similar to how dictators like to hang their portraits in factories? Never seen that in the (admitted small amount) of factories I've visited around in Europe, but tends to also give off a bit of "too much nationalism" vibe around here unless there is a special event, the US flag seems to be treated differently in the US so maybe it's a common si…

In Canada it used to be common to have Canadian flags everywhere. It's only recently that we became a self-hating country.

> similar to how dictators like to hang their portraits

Insane comparison as the idea of a free country is fundamentally different than the cult of personality that dictators create.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#168

Post by rjrjrjrj » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:20 PM UTC

abalashov wrote: post #156

rjrjrjrj wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insta360 does this out of the box.

Does it?

I guess I should say it has some capabilities in this area.

Been a while since I used it, but it will generate the overlays and you can sync it with your ride data (eg Strava or Apple Health in my case, but iirc it also supports Garmin Connect).

There are some capability differences between the mobile app and the Insta360 studio desktop app.

I'm pretty sure it handled multiple files, but in my case they were the chunks that the camera splits its recording into, which is a bit different than than having multiple clips as you described.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#169

Post by topspin » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

Betteridge enters the chat. GoPro's market is changing: strong competitors now make solid, low cost alternatives. GoPro is moving deep into professional markets where margins are high, and leveraging their position as a US company whose products can be utilized by sensitive customers.

GoPro will be fine. They just won't be the go-to for every YouTuber any longer.

Re: Is this the end of the once-mighty GoPro?

#170

Post by dismalaf » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

johannes1234321 wrote: post #98

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think someone waving their country's flag is the same as waving a flag with the face of a dictator? Worldwide?

This thread was about omnipresent flag presence in factories and such. And the way it's done in America is different from many other countries.

Is it? The car dealership near where I grew up had a 100 foot tall pole with a Canadian flag at least 10 feet wide, probably more. And that's a car dealership... Flags were everywhere: gyms, offices, banks, schools, etc... Can't say I toured any factories to specifically know if they were there, but I'm guessing yes.

Of course now it's different, the flag is less common, to the point in my home province (Alberta) you see more Albertan flags than Canadian ones...