When GoPro started their line of action cameras, they became the go-to brand for this type of product, and many people associated the idea of an action camera with GoPro themselves. And yet, as time went on, other companies started to catch up and released their own versions of the product, eventually reaching a situation where the market is quite heavily saturated and GoPro have been having trouble staying relevant themselves.
And now, we’re waiting for the latest GoPro Hero 5 to come out, but it looks like the company has pushed the release date back indefinitely and it won’t be out for at least a few more months. Normally, this wouldn’t be such a problem – but in the current situation, it might actually cause a lot of issues for GoPro and put them in an awkward spot.
According to reports, GoPro have decided to postpone the release in order to add even more features and polish to the camera, but this could eventually backfire if they’re not careful. As we said above, the market situation has been changing significantly, and the company may find themselves facing a wall of indifference if they make their next release too late.
Action cameras have been coming out by other brands left and right, and other companies have also introduced their own unique twists to the formula, adding more functionalities and polishing the concept even further. Sony are a particularly strong competitor right now and we expect that they will be one of the biggest challenges for GoPro if they delay their release by too long.
Experts have been somewhat critical of the situation as well, claiming that GoPro will likely see a significant drop in sales due to this delay, and urging the company to speed up their production process. We don’t know what’s going on behind the doors of GoPro, but it’s probably safe to assume that they’re actively planning their next move right now and are probably looking at their possible options for releasing the next model sooner.
There are various rumors about what the GoPro Hero 5 might offer, including 8K video support and 60 FPS recording for 4K videos, which would be a pretty good increase compared to previous models indeed. However, if that’s the reason for the camera’s delay, we’re not sure that the new developments will justify the extra wait.
Because in the meantime, other companies have been releasing their own products with similar features, or at least close to that, and in the end GoPro may lose their advantage of better specifications. They also have an edge in the way of brand recognition, and this is something else that they might eventually lose if the release of the Hero 5 comes too late. And still, the company also has a pretty strong loyal following of fans who would readily buy anything new by them, but the question is how much GoPro can actually rely on this following for their success.
According to some, if the company continues with this slow release pace, they might eventually find themselves a niche brand instead of the popular action camera manufacturer that they used to be, which would be a pretty sad development considering how far they’ve come with their products since they launched their first one. But in the end, adding new features isn’t everything – they must also maintain a strong market presence with constant releases and strong marketing, and that might be their biggest issue right now.