For those waiting for the Hero 5 to come out, the latest news about the action camera suggests that they might have to wait a little longer than expected before they can get to try the latest action camera from GoPro.
As per Value Walk, GoPro has decided to push back Hero 5’s release until October this year.
The delay is apparently intentional so that the American camcorder company can add more features to the action camera as well as make the device small enough to work with the company’s first drone, the Karma.
It was initially reported that the reason for Hero 5’s multiple delays was because GoPro was not doing well financially. The prices of the gadgets were indeed down by a whopping 75% compared to last year thus worrying a lot of its investors.
Value Walk notes that the Hero 4 was sold at $399 when it first came out, but just a year later, its price has dropped to at least half already.
Despite this major slash in the price of GoPro cameras, the company has a legit reason as to why they keep on pushing back Hero 5’s release date and that is because they are prioritizing the launch of the Karma.
In fact, the company’s trade is still 11 times forward and its quarterly earnings grew by 28% and its revenue by 43% over the same period last year. GoPro also has over $500 million in cash with absolutely no debt.
This means that the company isn’t broke at all. Instead, its stock just became highly overvalued following its initial public offering.
Many are disappointed however as they have been waiting for more than a year already to get their hands on the newest addition to the GoPro action camera line.
Some were expecting the Hero 5 to come out in September last year, a year after its predecessor, a trend that is applied in the consumer market to sell most gadgets today.
Reports then surfaced that the Hero 5 was to be released in October 2015, but was then moved to December in time for the holidays. However, the company did not release Hero 4’s successor at all last year.
The Hero 4 was released in September 2014 and camera enthusiasts expected a successor by 2015 but reports stated that Hero 5’s release date was pushed back to further develop the fifth generation action camera.
Christian Post reports that GoPro is eyeing a massive leap forward with Hero 4’s successor in terms of video quality. Reportedly, the camera will offer 8k video recording resolution, a far cry from Hero 4’s 4k video resolution.
Hero 5 is also rumored to shoot videos at 60 frames per second and can do filming at a depth of 60 meters, tripling that of Hero 4’s 20-meter capacity.
As per Crossmap, the upcoming action camera will feature the Ambarella H1 System on Chip. This allows the Hero 5 to film in 4k resolution at 60fps but at a higher speed than that of Hero 4.
It also allows 2.7k performance and higher frame rates for 1080p filming for epic slow motion video.
Meanwhile, the company’s drone camera is expected to be released during the first half of this year.
Some reports claim that Hero 5 and the Karma will be released at the same time and will be sold in a featured bundle. In order to easily attach the Karma drone, the company is looking to make Hero 5 smaller and lighter.
The Karma will reportedly be launched a few months ahead of the Hero 5 to see how well the drone does in the market without any bundle pack.
As per Day Herald, the company is strategically planning the release for Hero 5.
Its predecessor failed to meet sales expectation because it was poorly priced and now, GoPro is doing its best to make sure it doesn’t happen. Youth Health Mag suggests that Hero 5’s price might range from $450-$550.