GoPro plans to introduce two camera products different from the HERO and MAX cameras by the end of this year. The company isn’t giving any concrete details yet, but says the new cameras will be more “specialized” than the current HERO and MAX cameras.
Nicholas Woodman, CEO of GoPro, likens the current HERO camera to a Swiss army knife that ‘can do everything for some people’. But, Woodman says to investorsSome people also want specialized knives for specific use cases. “And those are the products we want to build for them.”
Woodman emphasizes that the new strategy will be different from the “good, better, best” strategy the company had in previous years. The company sold several camera products that were very similar, but where the better products had a higher resolution, or a higher frame rate. “Those products were very similar, they were made for the same use cases, so we attracted the same customer types.”
With the new camera products, GoPro wants to appeal to other users who, for example, want to use the camera sensor of the HERO, but where there are ‘other aspects that are undesirable’. Concrete products are not yet discussed, but the company may be thinking of smaller cameras without built-in screens. Woodman says GoPro wants to sell cameras that customers have been asking for for years. According to him, this is now not possible due to ‘the physical limitations of the HERO camera’. The new camera products must have ‘HERO technology’. With this, Woodman presumably refers to the camera sensor. GoPro is targeting consumers and businesses with the new products.
GoPro is no longer about selling as many cameras as possible. “We have a lot of experience driving sales by lowering the prices of products. And with that you end up with a business that is not nearly as fun or profitable. We don’t like making our products ‘dumber’, we want developing the best performing products for those consumers and professionals who have specific needs.” This approach would also lead to higher margins, Woodman says, which would ultimately be good for the company. The first two products should appear at the end of this year. There should be more new camera types next year.