jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It's sad to see GoPro in such a fast decline. I wonder if they will even be in business a year from now. A surfer came up with a great idea for getting video of himself while surfing, and he made millions. Maybe charging $300 - $400 for a camera that others have copied and sold for $50 is what is leading to his demise.

lqm854

You are right you can get a great clone for $50+ dollars, while the original is going for close to $500.00

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Not having used one, GoPro or other, are the clones as good? Somehow Apple Computers is still thriving. Look what happened to IBM after Compac and Dell cloned the original "PC". The high price & closed architecture failed for Sony for the Betamax.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Key words: "He made millions". Good for him.
Gravy train run onto competition? Sorry, nature of the beast.

Now he can go back to surfing and enjoy life.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Reminds me of Carry Mullis and the PCR technique he invented for DNA / Genetic engineering that he thought up while surfing and driving around and trying to impress his girlfriend. It seemed molecular biology was more a back-seat hobby to him with surfing being his real passion. Someone got rich, but it was more likely UC San Diego than Dr. Mullis. He made the mistake of doing the research on the clock and with UC materials.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

The typical GoPro user isn't like the typical DSLR owner who is more likely to give in to the urge to "upgrade" whenever a new model is released (however slight the actual improvement may be), even if the camera already owned is still working just fine. Naturally, there is a tapering off on sales once the market is saturated, and the success of each successive new version diminishes.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Actually, that's not quite true regarding the failure of Betamax.

It was Sony who invented the first cassette based videotaping system (after Ampex made the first commercial open reel video tape devices). The Ampex tapes were something like 2 inches wide; Sony's U-Matic was 1" wide in a cartridge. It was too costly for consumers and so only found use in industry and education.

As technology improved, Sony then made a cartridge for 1/2" wide tape, and improved the cartridge mechanism itself - that was Betamax. And it was the only game in town.

But it was Sony's hubris that cost them that market. The problem with Betamax in the US was the 1 hour time limit (of the original models), and in those days we in the USA had the Sunday night "Movie of the week" which was a 2 hour program. So RCA went to Sony and asked them to make a 2 hour version (by slowing the tape speed) - Sony, being more engineering than marketing oriented, refused. Not that regular people would really have noticed the degradation of quality, but again, from the engineering point of view, Sony wanted no part of it.

So RCA asked Sony to make an OEM version of Betamax for them - put the RCA label on the machines rather than besmirch the Sony brand. Again, Sony refused.

So then RCA went to Matsushita (who was known in the states at the time as Panasonic) and asked them for a 2 hour capable version. They were happy to comply, and essentially copied the (by then old) cassette technology of U-Matic. And that became VHS.

Of course, Sony has fallen far from the heights of technological respect it had in those days (at least from the consumer viewpoint), but back then they prided themselves on that brand and engineering superiority and did not want to hear about any kind of compromise. When their videotape factory in Dothan, Alabama ended up having to manufacture VHS cassettes years later, it was a real loss of face.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

Actually he spends his time now as a venture capitalist helping others achieve their American dream. That being said he also no doubt takes time out to enjoy his hobby no different than us.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

There were mentions of Gopro clones in this thread. Anyone have any particular models that they are referring to? I have a Gopro camera that I really like and I use it for specific reasons. 1. It's very small. 2. Very unobtrusive when it needs to be. 3. Very lightweight. 4. I really like the wide angle perspective it gives in still images. 5. Fun to play with doing stop action shots.(30 fps burst mode). Quality built. Given, it's not for everyone.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

Just for the record, Umatic used 3/4" tape. In between Ampex's 2" reels were Sony's 1" reels, a pro format that lasted through the Umatic years, which was a portable (lol) format.

Beta cassettes were the undisputed broadcast standard of the ENG industry after Umatic, for a good decade, and an improved version called Beta SP uped the ante and pretty much killed one inch. In that mirror world Panasonic never stood a chance with VHS. Only last year did Sony finally put Beta SP in the grave.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

At that price point difference I can see why. Electronics are electronics and if made well will be the same. If Sony/Canon/Nikon/Pentax etc. could make a 1DX MII for $50.00 and still make the margin they would want to have they would do so. My dollar figures are off.
But the point is things are competitive. Cars all cost the same for the same features. Honda, Chevy and Ford all have models that compete directly both in features and price point or they would go out of business.
Basic business 101.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Wasn't RCA's work in this area actually done by it's little brother the JapaneseVictorCorporation or JVC? I had always heard the JVC was the only licensed producer of VHS tapes, and the small blocked JVC that appeared on the boxes of tapes was the license authorization. The lack of that logo was a signal of pirated tapes and usually of very inferior products.

Carl D Loc: Albemarle, NC.

GoPro has also made a small name for itself in the drone world as well but that is going be to short lived due to the fact that dslr's are being used more and more by the serious drone photographers because of more powerful drones and better gimbals. The Sony a6300 is very popular right now.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Seems like we are really telling different parts of the same story. To hear Bill Gates tell it, and he studied it for his over all marketing plan for DOS, the only thing that mattered to him was the idea to license a product to as many others as possible. At the time I was working retail and I do remember the market place being flooded with VHS clones by nearly every electronics name. Seems the only Betamax was Sony. I was not part of the professional use of any video products or industry, so I was unaware of the details of that portion of the market. Though I was aware of U-matic (1 "), Beta-max and VHS (3/4 "). Yes, I did hear that Sony still made Beta stuff up until recently. Though it is hard to imagine why in this age of digital, DVD and Blu-ray. And I kind of remember VHS being licensed from JVC too.

Tape may sound better for recording HiFi music as do the final product LPs. I personally know many musicians who insist on recording analog, but the general public has pretty much moved on to digital. Same with photography. I still shoot film from time to time, black & white anyway, but most of my photography is digital today. I still have two now unused 4x5" enlargers, two 4x5" view cameras, and three 35mm film cameras.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Wow, I have to hope for a drone fool to crash a flying Nikon D810 in my yard. When is the Hasselblad version coming out? Of course my Dogs will chew it all up so no drone or camera.