Is GoPro Inc (GPRO) A Damsel in Distress? Publi

Is GoPro Inc (GPRO) A Damsel in Distress?
Published by Henry Williams on January 17, 2016 at 6:49 am EST
GPRO
Is GoPro Inc (GPRO) A Damsel in Distress?
GoPro needs to divert its attention more on software than hardware

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRO) went from a quintessential rag to riches story ─ a crash and burn tale. While the latter title may sound slightly farfetched, the stock fell 73% last year and experienced another 37% dip in the first 15 days of New Year. If history is any to go by, then all signs point towards a troubling 2016 for the action camera maker.

GoPro Founder and CEO Nick Woodman has seen his personal wealth take blow after blow with every dip in the company’s stock. Worth an excess of $3.5 billion in 2014, the slide in stock price has removed him from the illustrious billionaire list all together. While Mr. Woodman would not be much concerned about his personal misfortune, the future of his company is sure to give him sleepless nights.

The company’s appeal rose substantially, after it unveiled its first action camera in 2014. The device gave numerous amateur video makers the tools to capture premium-quality- extreme-action videos. The camera’s easy user-interface only added to its charm- users could simply mount the small contraption onto a helmet, jacket or apparatus, to capture extreme sports-action videos, in a variety of rugged terrains.

It comes as no surprise that the company expected its latest action-camera variant, the Hero4 Session, to receive the same response as its predecessor, the Hero3 Silver, but woke up to the harsh reality of weak consumer demand. Not only did the device fail to grasp user’s attention, thus falling short of sales expectation, but also witnessed a number of price cuts.

Mr. Woodman is in a dire need of a quick fix. While the launch of its first ever drone, The Karma, which is scheduled to launch the first half of 2016, but it is still not enough to pull the company out of its present mayhem. It would be foolish to believe that the Karma will have excellent sales, given it fails to justify a hefty price tag. The drone market, while still in its infancy, has numerous companies coming up with their own versions, and GoPro drones would have to deliver something exceptional in order to lure in customers.

GoPro management is well aware that it cannot put all its eggs in one basket, therefore Mr. Woodman has been under considerable pressure to venture into the virtual reality (VR) business. And based on its recent offering at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2016, industry experts and analysts were impressed what the company had in stores in this domain. Individuals had the opportunity to experience GPRO’s VR Video using Facebook’s Oculus headset and gave positive feedback after.

While the initial response towards the drones and VR is encouraging, many still believe the area, which needs urgent attention is “Software.” GoPro needs to turn its focus towards the development of a user-friendly interface, as the current setup is an excruciating experience for users. A two-minute video requires roughly three-hours editing, and in today’s world, users are not willing to spare that much time and effort for a simple video. If the footage taken by a drone requires the same amount of editing time, GPRO can be assured that some users will shun its product primarily due to this reason.

The company should take a leaf out of Apple’s book by offering an easy and intuitive software experience. One of the main reasons for Apple’s success is its easy-to-grasp software ability. Mr. Woodman cannot expect a rebound for this company, unless he addresses this issue on urgent basis.

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Intuitive;
means having the ability to understand or know something without any direct evidence or reasoning process.

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