Creator1

GoPro was once the leader in the action camera market, but shortly after its IPO it quickly slumped and has failed to gain its footing back int he market.

New Product Line-up that was too late:

GoPro needed to innovate their product line-up. After having a few cycles as an industry leader, having invented the action camera and capitalized on the entry, the big players were encroaching. Sony, Polaroid and others began making their own action cameras, with much more respected and trusted brand names, and often at the same or better price.

GoPro did attempt to innovate, coming out with a new camera called the HERO4 Session camera, but was met with fierce direct competition from other camera makers, one competitor even had the ability to edit your shots for you, something GoPro lacked. This release was plagued by pricing issues as well, initially releasing at $399, it would eventually be slashed to $199, more than a 50% reduction. In response to this, Polaroid made a compact camera for a hundred dollars less, sales were devastated.

Take to the Sky!

Continuing on the trend of attempted renovation, they began launching their own drone lines, which would be inevitably beaten out by DJI and other reputable drone companies.

With cameras and drone out, they spent half of all revenue on developing their Unmanned drone (UAV). The R&D budget ballooned up to $96 million, and the management team responsible for delivery of this product hadn’t the engineering experience required for this project, they also were to deliver on impossible deadlines. This would culminate in the UAV being shipped, meeting their deadline. Unfortunately days later there would be a recall on all 2,500 units sold due to a manufacturing issue having to deal with the battery that would cause mid-flight power failure and subsequent crash.

GoPro is still a provider of the action cameras that made them famous, as well as drone products, but it is unclear whether they will be able to recover to their old glory anytime soon, if at all.