GoPro on 60 Minutes

Interesting!..thanks for sharing.

360 Panoramic Ball Camera

Speaking of gopro and helmet cams.
Why was there no helmet cam on one of the coolest thing done in the past 5 years!?
Felix Baumgartner jump has about 5 seconds of cool footage and then they show a dark fuzz falling through unfocused sky from a camera on the ground.

Probably in case he died…

Falling at 700mph and stuck in a flat spin probably doesn’t make for quality footage. First few seconds and last few minutes would w cool though.

They did post it, just obviously wasn’t in real time (GoPro get on your 4G Streaming module)

Also, I’m pretty sure he dies at 1:12 and then comes back to life. Woops!

Nice!! That footage is intense!
He does die for about a second there!

I’ve always been intrigued by this catagory. I’m curious what others think of why GoPro has been so successful when it comes to keeping competitors at bay. I’ve always thought (still do) that the Contour form factor is a more successful execution of the function. Everything from the slide on/off switch to the barrel shape allowing a more dynamic form for mounting on various items. However, GoPro has just managed to saturate everything when it comes to this industry to the point that I don’t believe the average consumer even knows there’s anything else out there.

Truly an amazing feat of accomplishment for the staff of GoPro.

Among many many reasons I find 2 particular easy ROI: GoPro stickers with every purchased camera (Apple copycat?), and freely available GoPro-clip to add to the end of your movie. Every clip you see you will know they used a GoPro one way or another. So when someone decides to get an actioncam they just get what they know everyone else has. Kinda like the iPod 7 years ago. Noone ever got fired picking the market leader…

It’s great to see that someone can still become a young billionaire by creating something other than social media platforms…

Having used a Contour for the past 2 years for paintball I think that it’s a superior design to the GoPro. To be fair it’s because the Contour has a smaller form factor which is important in paintball as you want to keep a small profile, that and it’s easier to mount to the gear. Still, there’s guys who will mount the big boxy GoPro on top of their visor making it an easy target. I will concede that GoPro’s got some higher resolution options and a better video tweaking ability.

Contour has had trouble competing and closed this year, but I believe was bought out and I hope they make a comeback. I think GoPro rose to the top of the market due mostly to good marketing, and Contour couldn’t keep up. Then there’s the Red7 camera developed specifically for paintball and marketed through paintball celebrity Greg Hastings, but I haven’t looked into it much. http://www.r7usa.com/

And just for giggles here’s our highlight video from Living Legends 6 in Chicago earlier in the year, shot with Contours set at 720p. I may or may not be the troll shooting people point blank with a pump rifle as they ran in my bunker…

Small world. You ever look into the Drift Innovation cameras? They strike me as the common ground between the GoPro and Contour. Buddy bought one for paintball (also Chicagoland) and snowboarding but I have yet to see footage. I would like something that fits well on a marker down the road.

GoPro 4k looks awesome specwise but, like you said, it doesnt fit anywhere that my DSLR couldnt go :slight_smile:

Interesting that GoPro makes its founder a billionaire, while Contour can’t even stay in business. I think Contour did a better i.d. job, but GoPro’s marketing strategy was a lesson in how to go after the intended target market.

That’s awesome !

GoPro’s stock has been on a free fall for the past year. Either they’re getting bought or going private.

Great !!

I think GoPro is one of the best modern-era case studies of how to market and succeed in your product design based business.
Kinda shows that everything doesnt have to be social media app based now to be succesful, theres still hope for industrial design :laughing:

  • it also proves the importance of sales&marketing vs. the more perfect design (in the GrPro vs. Contour case).

Another entry into the action camera arena.

If I had bought GoPro stock on the day that story aired on 60 Minutes I would have less than a quarter of my investment today. :open_mouth:

It seems like when something hits 60 minutes, that’s the signal that it can only go down.

Though, it has been a strange few years in product. Fitbit was near $50/share 2 years ago, $5 today. Fitbit and GoPro both had explosive sales, but quickly saturated the market and the petered out.

Perhaps the product adoption curve has shrunk around tech. It feels like a life cycle that would have taken 10 years before, now takes 2-3 years.

LOL, we always used to say at my last job that CES award was a sign that a product was going to bomb! :laughing: