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GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

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Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#2
It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year.

Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their smartphone in, but if you're filming sports there's a quite high risk to destroy the phone. The price of GoPro-style video cameras will go down over time (if they won't constantly add new features in), but the cost of phones will probably stay high in the future.

Consumers will likely choose the $79 camera instead of risking their $500 phone to film sports.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#3
post #2

It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year. Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their…

The quality difference isn't super far off, but I don't think the main target audience for GoPro is going to disappear to using camera phones. There's just too much of an industry built round them now, they can survive a huge chunk of damage and keep rolling, there's all sorts of mounts and and attachments and so on.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#4
post #2

It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year. Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their…

There is always going to be a significant low light advantage to having a larger lense and sensor. Add a mourning bracket / wrist strap, improved noise reduction and there is only so close a camera phone can get.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#5
post #4
post #2

It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year. Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their…

There is always going to be a significant low light advantage to having a larger lense and sensor. Add a mourning bracket / wrist strap, improved noise reduction and there is only so close a camera phone can get.

Yes, that's true, but when camera phones will be as good as e.g. Canon 5D Mark iii (and they will, relatively soon even) then that quality will be good enough for practically everyone. At that point only professionals need better quality.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#6
post #2

It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year. Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their…

A GoPro doesn't have the same pressures placed on its thickness that a smartphone has. It can afford to have a lens that is deeper than 5 mm while people expect phones to get thinner and thinner. A deeper lens can afford you better optical quality.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#7
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is always going to be a significant low light advantage to having a larger lense and sensor. Add a mourning bracket / wrist strap, improved noise reduction and there is only so close a camera phone can get.

Yes, that's true, but when camera phones will be as good as e.g. Canon 5D Mark iii (and they will, relatively soon even) then that quality will be good enough for practically everyone. At that point only professionals need better quality.

How does this prediction jibe with the statement that a larger sensor will always be beneficial, especially in low light?

Will smartphones be able to include much larger sensors in the future?

Is there some new physics that obviates the need for a large sensor?

The 5D Mark III has > 24x the sensor area of an iPhone 5, and most smartphones are even worse off [0] [1]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_large_sensor_interchang... [1] http://www.chipworks.com/blog/recentteardowns/2012/09/21/app...

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#8
post #2

It'll be interesting to see if they can compete with cameraphones. GoPro does have a few differentation strategies. First is that they'll offer higher quality video than phones. However, the video quality on phones will get better all the time, and the difference in quality will become smaller every year. Another strategy is that they can compete with price. Consumers can always buy a case and a strap to house their…

In the foreseeable future, the form factor of a phone makes it impractical to e.g. strap on your helmet, while the more cubical gopro would be a very impractical handset.

Re: GoPro Evolution: From 35mm Film To America's Fastest-Growing Camera Company

#10
The key to GoPro is content. As the saying goes, "Content is King". Camera Phones just do not create contact, "on Par" with a goPro generally speaking. Think of your average Camera Phone user, and average Gopro user... The average content generated from the goPro, although - probably not impressive like the footage you see in the adverts, is still going to be superior to average content from a phone camera. Naturally the goPro user has acquired the camera because his average state when using the camera is "something Exciting", and, the average state of the average phone camera user (when grabbing footage) is perhaps "I will share this with my friends" or "this looks cool" (whatever you want to label it).
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