GoPro gives the nod....DRONES!

[Bartman]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gopro-climbs-announcing-plans-drones-134024343.html

I'm surprised nobody posted this! I just got home and saw it in the Yahoo! news feed

GoPro's Move Into Drones, Virtual Reality Cheers Investors

By Peter Burrows1 minute ago


GoPro Inc. announced plans to move beyond its Hero brand of wearable cameras, easing some investor concerns that it was a single-product company.

Chief Executive Officer Nick Woodman said GoPro was developing a drone for capturing video from the skies and working on a product that will allow video and photo recording for virtual reality. The shares rose 6.6 percent on Thursday to close at $56.81, their high since January 9. The gain left the stock down 10 percent for the year.

“This puts some of the naysayers on their heels, who thought this was just a one-hit wonder,” said Erinn Murphy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co.

She estimated that GoPro can take from 10 percent to 25 percent of the drone market, which she expects to grow to $5 billion in 2020 from $2 billion this year. Its strong name recognition -– GoPro is the most viewed brand on YouTube last year, she said -– will help the company win a substantial share of the industry.

GoPro’s Six-Camera Spherical Array for virtual reality will be available in the second half of this year, Woodman said Wednesday at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. It will use technology developed by Kolor, a startup that the San Mateo, California-based companyacquired in April. He said the drone will be available in the first half of next year. Woodman declined to state pricing and other specifics.

Murphy said both initiatives fit well into GoPro’s strategy.

“We live in a somewhat narcissistic culture,” she said. “We love our selfies and documenting our own lives, and GoPro has been able to capitalize on that.”

 

[SamaraMedia]

10-25% is a pretty lofty estimate for a newbie in the drone market. If they don't fix the fisheye problem that maybe great in a "selfie" world but if they're serious about aerial video they need to have exposure control, rectilinear lens, good 4k, a stable platform and FC to catch up with DJI and 3DR in the consumer market. Talk is cheap, they're still half a year away from launch and we all know how quick this s*** chances in 6 months time...

 

[Motopreserve]

They have the money to develop and back this - and they don't need to go for the more discerning prosumer market if they don't want to. It will sell, and it will sell a TON!

Their current (and past) products are themselves a built in marketing campaign. If dji can get the share they have now coming from nowhere - I think GoPro will be off the charts with the typical consumer. The name recognition alone will be worth gold sales. And if some kid is thinking "video from the air," there isn't a more natural company to jump into the fray.

 

[Bartman]

this is a no brainer, GoPro can do whatever they'd like with their cameras as they have plenty of hacks in the market to model their next evolutionary step on, including the Inspire's proprietary camera system.

IMHO, the helicopter part of the equation is easier to jump into than the high end action camera market. GoPro could probably release a camera tomorrow that would blow everyone's mind and have it attached to a helicopter that would certainly hold its own against all others.

 

[Motopreserve]

Agreed. The copter part is fairly simple, even for a company that's uninitiated. The challenge they will face is the gimbal. But then again, they're GoPro, so they could buy DJI if they're worried about it

 

[dazzab]

They should spend some time/money putting a better lens on their cameras first.

 

[Motopreserve]

I don't think their core market dislikes the lens on their current cameras. It plays to their hobbies. But getting into this new market, they seem savvy enough to read the writing on the wall.

Again, I think the key will be whether they try to target pros, or go for the larger market share, which is definitely comprised of non-pixel peepers.

 

[JoeBob]

GoPro will probably approach it little differently. Don't think of an MR to carry their existing cameras. Think of a lens & CCD/CMOS with rotors.
GoPro can eliminate a lot of the gimbal/camera interface clutter if they make a spherical camera the size of the FLIR Vue and use small wheels to hold/move it around in a socket. (Eyeball?)
View attachment 24846
Bypass recording latency by sending a direct feed to the video Tx, and you won't need an FPV camera.