GoPro Having Too Many Problems With Drone

[pgitug]

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

I read an entire interview w/Nick Woodman (CEO). They (GoPro) had made other unwise business decisions. They were "ramping up" to start some sort of NetFlix style channel and invested a lot of capital and hired many employees for it. Long story short if fell flat.

 

[Jayfdee]

I am sure Karma sales have not been good, disastrous product launch and recall was bad enough, and a few weeks after launch the Mavic was released.

 

[nhorsman]

Problems with the Karma? I was trying to decide between the mavic and karma...mavic was more portable...so i never looked into the karma

 

[borislip]

I've been seriously looking into Karma, but low portability and terrible reviews were the killer. Guess i wasn't the only one ending up buying the Mavic.

 

[locoman]

Been that way for over a year. They just could never got their act together.

 

[HWCM]

It's not a problem with the Karma, sales are just not as expected. The real problem is with the price of the gopro.
The Karma is a good quad. It didn't work for them, so they restructure and move forward.

 

[LivinLarge]

Sad to see that. I really want them to succeed. We need more competition in this field. They actually have a nice system. The karma comes with a removable camera which is a great action camera, waterproof, dust proof and durable. The kit includes a hand held gimbal. The controller has a built in screen so you don't have to buy a tablet or phone and no worries about compatibility.

 

[Lapeer20m]

Problems with the Karma? I was trying to decide between the mavic and karma...mavic was more portable...so i never looked into the karma

Mavic was definately the karma killer.

Rumor is that GoPro tried to partner with dji before development of karma, which made the release date of mavic that much more interesting.

 

[Tommytucka]

As a few people above I was looking at karma when I was looking at mavic, but all I could find was negative reviews about karma and a mass factory recall when first launched, so obviously I chose the mavic

 

[HWCM]

As a few people above I was looking at karma when I was looking at mavic, but all I could find was negative reviews about karma and a mass factory recall when first launched, so obviously I chose the mavic

That's been fixed. All it required was a piece of tape.
I wonder if they have as many issues with their firmware updates as DJI does?

 

[Drone Master]

That's been fixed. All it required was a piece of tape.
I wonder if they have as many issues with their firmware updates as DJI does?

Well, it just came over the news that GoPro has quit the drone business all together.
GoPro quits the drone business

 

[Johnmcl7]

I think the Karma would have failed even without the Mavic being sold as there were just too many issues with it, if the Karma had worked well though I think the Mavic would have still been a death blow. I liked the approach GoPro took in that they didn't just try to make a copy of an existing DJI drone but instead made something that would potentially appeal to those with GoPro equipment already or would want to use a stabiliser and GoPro camera for other purposes. Preorders also received a two year accidental care warranty for free and GoPro could potentially offer much better after sales service than DJI.

Then when the first Karmas were released, they had the fault they were falling from the sky which killed off any idea of getting a Karma for me as I'd bought a GoPro3 Black Edition on the back of glowing reviews and found it to be a highly unreliable beta device that wasn't ready for release. When the Karma came back out for release here the price actually went up and they'd removed the free accidental care warranty plus the drone still seemed to be suffering issues with low batterylife, poor range, not holding its position well and the camera angle not hiding the props.

Even if the Karma worked well it was clearly an inferior drone compared to the smaller, lighter, faster and better featured Mavic leaving the GoPro to rely on its stabiliser and separate camera which didn't seem that great either. The Karma stabiliser seems difficult to mount for using on a bike, the extender kit is pricey and the battery is fixed so I decided Zhiyun gimbal was a much better choice. I was initially after a GoPro5 but bought a Xiaomi Yi 4K when I found it had much better batterylife than the GoPro and the mic works fine with a gimbal whereas the GoPro5 doesn't.

I am disappointed DJI weren't able to produce a competent rival as it's never good when one company is dominant with little competition but the Karma had way too many issues.

John

 

[pixl]

GoPro has put themselves up for sale as of today.

 

[Drone Master]

GoPro has put themselves up for sale as of today.

Yeop, saw that.
GoPro has hired JP Morgan to put itself up for sale

 

[Kilrah]

It's not a problem with the Karma, sales are just not as expected.

Well it IS a problem with the Karma, the problem being that it is/was just not a good enough product to make those sales.

 

[SZNJ732]

i wonder what this statement is all about?:
"The company also blamed the decision on new regulations being mooted in Europe and the US that it claimed would “reduce the total addressable market in the years ahead.”

does Gopro have inside info on some new/stricter regs in the works? or they just speculating - making excuses?...

 

[HWCM]

Well, it just came over the news that GoPro has quit the drone business all together.
GoPro quits the drone business

That's no surprise. Gopro has been struggling for a while. Their cameras are way overpriced.

 

[JoKhool]

That's no surprise. Gopro has been struggling for a while. Their cameras are way overpriced.

Never could justify spending that much on a GoPro. I was dead set on the Mavic from from first sight, I did however do my research before spending that much on a quad. Everything I heard, read and watched, there was no comparison between the two. And it was all confirmed when the Karma literally fell flat. I wish better for them but I think they bit off more than they could chew trying to get into the emerging commercial drone game. They developed and released an inferior product and it showed.

 

[borislip]

Did anyone on this thread actually fly the karma? Just wondering if its all second hand speculations.