4 ms·

What prevents a serious camera company like Nikon or Canon from rolling and and owning this market? Is a couple $bn not enough to get them out of bed in the mo

by sk5t 14y ago

What prevents a serious camera company like Nikon or Canon from rolling and and owning this market? Is a couple $bn not enough to get them out of bed in the morning?

kunle 14y ago
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?
- krasin 14y ago
  In some sense, Pivothead [1], but the quality of the video is considerably lower. [1] http://pivothead.com/products/eyewear/recon/black-jet http://pivothead.com/products/eyewear/recon/black-jet
- bennesvig 14y ago
  Agreed. A competitor is Conture. Search devinsupertramp on YouTube to see a few videos they have sponsored him to make with the cameras. I think one is of a blob.
- clueless123 14y ago
  There are plenty, but none matches the video quality/rugged-nes/price/ergonomics combination that the GoPro offers.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    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.
- rorrr 14y ago
  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).
  - kjackson2012 14y ago
    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 missing piece to that camera, otherwise it would be perfect.
    - josephlord 14y ago
      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.
    - rorrr 14y ago
      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.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
      > The Contour has some traction, I really like the look and design of contour's latest model (Contour +2), but having seen the user reviews on Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, I feel that for me the software quality and functionality issues mean that I just won't buy it, unless this is greatly improved.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    Drift HD Ghost too; much better than GoPro as a helmet cam.
calinet6 14y ago
They never saw the market. They didn't even know it existed. Woodman is a surfer—the market was right in front of him. He saw a need, and he solved it with a very simple, high quality device tailored to that specific need. A better argument there has never been for solving real problems with real solutions, rather than trying to essentially trick people into believing they both have a problem and need a solution. The latter is possible, but the former is a far better path to success.
ghaff 14y ago
The funny thing is that Canon, in particular, pretty much stumbled into pro/prosumer video and has done very well with it. Whether it causes itself harm by starting to try to deliberately segment its video and stills/prosumer video market remains to be seen. But, yeah, they weren't aiming for the sports video market and they don't especially have a brand there. Actually, neither Nikon nor Canon have an especial brand in even waterproof cameras. (Canon does have one--only recently updated--Nikon AFAIK does not.) The point about getting out of bed in the morning is probably relevant. You get to a certain size of company and even large niches aren't especially interesting.
kjackson2012 14y ago
It would require a serious investment to make a camera that would exceed GoPro in terms of quality and reliability, and then even more investment in marketing to get some sort of consumer mindshare. All of this for a market that is something like 5-10% of their point and shoot market. It's the type of gamble most companies aren't willing to make.

by sk5t 14y ago

What prevents a serious camera company like Nikon or Canon from rolling and and owning this market? Is a couple $bn not enough to get them out of bed in the morning?

kunle 14y ago

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?

krasin 14y ago
In some sense, Pivothead [1], but the quality of the video is considerably lower. [1] http://pivothead.com/products/eyewear/recon/black-jet http://pivothead.com/products/eyewear/recon/black-jet
bennesvig 14y ago
Agreed. A competitor is Conture. Search devinsupertramp on YouTube to see a few videos they have sponsored him to make with the cameras. I think one is of a blob.
clueless123 14y ago
There are plenty, but none matches the video quality/rugged-nes/price/ergonomics combination that the GoPro offers.
- barrkel 14y ago
  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.
rorrr 14y ago
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).
- kjackson2012 14y ago
  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 missing piece to that camera, otherwise it would be perfect.
  - josephlord 14y ago
    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.
  - rorrr 14y ago
    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.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
    > The Contour has some traction, I really like the look and design of contour's latest model (Contour +2), but having seen the user reviews on Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, I feel that for me the software quality and functionality issues mean that I just won't buy it, unless this is greatly improved.
- barrkel 14y ago
  Drift HD Ghost too; much better than GoPro as a helmet cam.

calinet6 14y ago

They never saw the market. They didn't even know it existed. Woodman is a surfer—the market was right in front of him. He saw a need, and he solved it with a very simple, high quality device tailored to that specific need. A better argument there has never been for solving real problems with real solutions, rather than trying to essentially trick people into believing they both have a problem and need a solution. The latter is possible, but the former is a far better path to success.

ghaff 14y ago

The funny thing is that Canon, in particular, pretty much stumbled into pro/prosumer video and has done very well with it. Whether it causes itself harm by starting to try to deliberately segment its video and stills/prosumer video market remains to be seen. But, yeah, they weren't aiming for the sports video market and they don't especially have a brand there. Actually, neither Nikon nor Canon have an especial brand in even waterproof cameras. (Canon does have one--only recently updated--Nikon AFAIK does not.) The point about getting out of bed in the morning is probably relevant. You get to a certain size of company and even large niches aren't especially interesting.

kjackson2012 14y ago

It would require a serious investment to make a camera that would exceed GoPro in terms of quality and reliability, and then even more investment in marketing to get some sort of consumer mindshare. All of this for a market that is something like 5-10% of their point and shoot market. It's the type of gamble most companies aren't willing to make.