A lot is in play for GoPro as they are failing to reach goals in terms of sales. At the just finished event, we could hear announcements for both Karma drone and new GoPro devices that should help out the company to get back on their feet again.
Is this enough? Well, to be honest, we are not sure. There are more than a few problems with new devices, and even they might be perfect it still is a good question if they will bring back the company to a top position on the market.
First of all, GoPro Karma Drone has been delayed for about six months and despite initial hopes, it will be quite pricey. If you want this foldable but vert capable quadcopter be prepared to give $799, and that is the price without the camera. If you want to add Hero5 Black or Hero5 Session than the figure goes up to $1,099 and $999 respectively.
Initially, we could see a huge jump in stock price for GoPro after this news went out, but shortly after we received details about retail prices of new devices we saw a slight drop. When compared to main competitors it is clear that GoPro has a lot to offer regarding quality, but DJI Phantom 3 Standard can be had for about $500 which is a much more competitive price. Furthermore, few more companies got involved in this business, and Parrot, Yuneec and similar have units for even under $500.
image source: newsledge.com
Even one of the goals for the company was to move further from camera devices market and to introduce new gadgets they still need to keep its fingers in action segment. Both Hero5 Session and Hero5 Black now comes fully waterproof even without an additional case. On the Black Edition, we have touch sensitive LCD; while voice control, which was demonstrated, arrives in both versions and supports seven different languages.
If we take a look at the sale numbers and revenue of GoPro, there is a clear decline. In the second quarter of this year, it has recorded 47% drop to $220,7 million. Simplest way to explain this is to say that customers don’t have the urge to replace their devices as often as we can see in the smartphone market. This happens only when a big upgrade comes for many people, but still, we have those buyers that simply need to have the latest device.
