Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire • Hacker News Board

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#31

Post by masklinn » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 10:39 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #26

sandieman wrote: post #14

Does anyone remember flipcam?

For reference: Cisco bought Pure Digital, an SF-based startup that created the Flip camera line, for $590 million in 2009, only to shut them down completely 2 years later: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html That episode may be more a reflection on Cisco's confusion than anything wrong with the original product/market. (Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy compet…

> Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy competitor to GoPro.

It'd have to flip mightily, Pure Digital did consumer "point and shoot" cameras, gopro does actioncams. They're the same thing only in that both are cameras (and then again, so are RED, would you argue RED is going to become a gopro competitor?)

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#32

Post by barrkel » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 11:20 AM UTC

clueless123 wrote: post #16

kunle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never took it seriously to begin with, and now that its clear that this is a serious market, they're too late. I wouldn't put it past them to invest additionally in GoPro (or some competitor). Separately - who are GoPro's competitors?

There are plenty, but none matches the video quality/rugged-nes/price/ergonomics combination that the GoPro offers.

The Drift Ghost is definitely better in almost all respects as a motorcycle helmet cam. The GoPro form factor is ill-suited to helmet mounting.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#33

Post by barrkel » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 11:21 AM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #18

kunle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never took it seriously to begin with, and now that its clear that this is a serious market, they're too late. I wouldn't put it past them to invest additionally in GoPro (or some competitor). Separately - who are GoPro's competitors?

There are tons of GoPro competitors: Contour Contour+2, ContourRoam Sony Action Cam (HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15) Polaroid XS7, XS20 and XS100 CamOne (camonetec.com) AEE BlackEye XTR (Magicam SD21) (www.aee.com/en/) Tachyon (tachyoninc.com) UnmannedTech FPV HD camera Tons of unknown asian brands like 808 #16 720p micro camera ($8 to $40).

Drift HD Ghost too; much better than GoPro as a helmet cam.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#34

Post by josephlord » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 11:37 AM UTC

kjackson2012 wrote: post #21

rorrr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of GoPro competitors: Contour Contour+2, ContourRoam Sony Action Cam (HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15) Polaroid XS7, XS20 and XS100 CamOne (camonetec.com) AEE BlackEye XTR (Magicam SD21) (www.aee.com/en/) Tachyon (tachyoninc.com) UnmannedTech FPV HD camera Tons of unknown asian brands like 808 #16 720p micro camera ($8 to $40).

There are competitors, but none of them are a threat. The Contour has some traction, and the Sony ActionCam is pretty decent spec-wise, but nothing compares to the GoPro HD3 Black edition: 120FPS @ 720p, 240FPS @ WVGA, and even 30FPS @ 2.7k. They are still a generation or two ahead of their competitors. The only thing I wish the HD3 Black had was GPS so that you could geotag your videos. That's about the biggest miss…

Apart from the 2.7K mode (where would that be useful) the Sony matches the specs you mention. Specs aren't everything and I haven't tried either product. Go Pro has the better accessory ecosystem at the moment and may still be the better product in many ways.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#35

Post by coryl » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 12:11 PM UTC

Kliment wrote: post #28

jrockway wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

find a solid niche and make something consumers WANT to buy - as opposed to need to buy - great things can happen I don't understand this comment. The food and pharmaceutical industries seem to be doing just fine, even though food and medicine are things that people need to buy.

But nobody loves them

People do love their brands, such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#36

Post by rorrr » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 12:34 PM UTC

kjackson2012 wrote: post #21

rorrr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are tons of GoPro competitors: Contour Contour+2, ContourRoam Sony Action Cam (HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15) Polaroid XS7, XS20 and XS100 CamOne (camonetec.com) AEE BlackEye XTR (Magicam SD21) (www.aee.com/en/) Tachyon (tachyoninc.com) UnmannedTech FPV HD camera Tons of unknown asian brands like 808 #16 720p micro camera ($8 to $40).

There are competitors, but none of them are a threat. The Contour has some traction, and the Sony ActionCam is pretty decent spec-wise, but nothing compares to the GoPro HD3 Black edition: 120FPS @ 720p, 240FPS @ WVGA, and even 30FPS @ 2.7k. They are still a generation or two ahead of their competitors. The only thing I wish the HD3 Black had was GPS so that you could geotag your videos. That's about the biggest miss…

Specs aren't everything, you can compete on price. Lots of these alternatives are MUCH cheaper than GoPros. 99% of people don't even know of resolutions higher than HD, and 99.9% wouldn't know what to do with them - there are no affordable 4K TVs yet, it will take a few years.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#37

Post by InclinedPlane » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 12:58 PM UTC

The GoPro is an excellent example of how product design can be hindered by an excessive feature list. The conventional wisdom is that consumers always want more features and removing features or failing to support the features your competition does is a recipe for business suicide. But the truth is that often times some features are not necessary and supporting them can serve as a roadblock toward developing other features or improving the core meta-features (usability, performance, robustness, cost, etc.) GoPro was smart enough to realize that there is a huge market for a camera which is not a jack of all trades, which is optimized to be compact, light, super easy to use, good for action shots or establishment shots and also inexpensive but not necessarily good for still photography, portraits, close-ups, low-light shots, etc. By making those compromises they were able to create a product that excelled in its niche, cemented its brand name, and destroyed the competition.

If you want to learn how to disrupt existing industries and build billion dollar companies from nothing, there are few better examples.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#38

Post by bonzoesc » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 1:40 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #31

gojomo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference: Cisco bought Pure Digital, an SF-based startup that created the Flip camera line, for $590 million in 2009, only to shut them down completely 2 years later: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html That episode may be more a reflection on Cisco's confusion than anything wrong with the original product/market. (Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy compet…

> Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy competitor to GoPro. It'd have to flip mightily, Pure Digital did consumer "point and shoot" cameras, gopro does actioncams. They're the same thing only in that both are cameras (and then again, so are RED, would you argue RED is going to become a gopro competitor?)

They're both simple video cameras, GoPro just has a more robust housing to make it into an action camera.

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#39

Post by gojomo » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 2:17 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #31

gojomo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference: Cisco bought Pure Digital, an SF-based startup that created the Flip camera line, for $590 million in 2009, only to shut them down completely 2 years later: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/technology/13flip.html That episode may be more a reflection on Cisco's confusion than anything wrong with the original product/market. (Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy compet…

> Perhaps with a less neglectful acquirer, Flip would have been a worthy competitor to GoPro. It'd have to flip mightily, Pure Digital did consumer "point and shoot" cameras, gopro does actioncams. They're the same thing only in that both are cameras (and then again, so are RED, would you argue RED is going to become a gopro competitor?)

Flip and GoPro both offer(ed) So it's not far-fetched they'd have become more direct competitors, with some sort of 'Action Flip' arriving, if Cisco hadn't essentially given up on retail/consumer video.

(Red differs in form-factor, feature set, pricing, target market, and distribution channel, so no, the same ripe potential for competition with GoPro isn't present.)

Re: Foxconn Buys Stake In Camera Maker GoPro, Turning Founder Into A Billionaire

#40

Post by tiddi » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 3:14 PM UTC

You don't just buy a GoPro, you buy all the accessories too. I bought a Hero 3 Black last month, my first GoPro and found myself spending almost as much on accessories (LCD, batteries, mounts,etc.) as I did on the camera. I would think thats where they make most of their money being that its cheap to manufacture a couple pieces of plastic that sells for $40.

I don't do any sports, I'm not really interested in photography but a GoPro is something I always wanted.

I used it to record the plane landing as I came home from vacation and even use it to record my kids in the backseat while driving. It's a fun camera and congrats to woodman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zb7OBLtoAo