GoPro’s line of action cameras started off great, but it didn’t take long for their competition to take notice of their success and start imitating them. And right now, many of the brand’s original fans seem more skeptical than optimistic for the future, and have been waiting for the Hero 5 with a sense of worry.
Recently, we’ve seen some leaks allegedly showing the new device, and that seems to have made people even more skeptical for its potential. Instead of getting fans hyped up and excited, the leaks resulted in responses more along the lines of “is that it?”
It’s clear that at this point, GoPro would need something quite serious to win back their fans, as many people have started to look elsewhere and aren’t actively considering the brand’s solutions right now. The market for action cameras has evolved quite a lot too, and GoPro no longer have the great advantage of being original.
Quite on the contrary, they have been falling behind some of the modern trends, as other companies have started adding various extra features to their devices that have been drawing more and more people to them. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for GoPro to reveal anything special about the Hero 5.
So far, we’ve been hearing rumors about a reduced physical size and advanced recording capabilities, but that’s about it. The only more special rumor that we’ve seen roaming around mentioned 3D recording support, but it’s not clear if GoPro are actually moving in that direction or not.
It wouldn’t be a bad move though, that’s for sure, as the new technology has been gaining more and more popularity lately. Increased support for it on social media sites like Facebook has definitely helped as well, so we’re curious to see what else is going to pop up on the market.
Meanwhile, if the latest leaks of the GoPro Hero 5 are actually true, we expect that the company would be more preoccupied with surviving rather than actively innovating, as they will likely find themselves in a very unfavorable market. Let’s hope that they will come back to their senses and start being innovative once again, as it would be a shame for one of the main players on this market to go under.
According to most fans of the company, the main issue with the leak is that it doesn’t show anything spectacularly new. While other companies have been experimenting with all kinds of different ideas for their designs, GoPro seem stuck with the same paradigm that they started with, and have been reluctant to move out of their comfort zone.
All of this sounds quite bad, but of course it could easily turn out that the rumors are false and GoPro have been preparing something amazing behind their doors all this time. Which would then beg the question of why they’ve been keeping quiet for so long, when they’ve had multiple opportunities to get their fans excited early on.
Of course, they may want to come out with a major surprise and shock everyone, but when the industry is moving so fast and everyone seems to be overtaking them, their silence is definitely not a good move right now.
We’re hopeful that the release of the GoPro Hero 5 will revive interest – and trust – in the company, as it could very well turn out to be their last true shot at regaining their position on the market. This may sound like an exaggeration, but recently it’s actually quite close to the truth.