[thot_experiment]

They certainly wouldn't survive if capitalism was working as intended. GoPro is one of the most institutionally arrogant companies around, they seem unable to understand that they have competition. (Which to be fair they absolutely didn't for the first few years of their existence). In 2026 they make a mediocre product with horrible software, and even worse customer service.

In contrast, I've smashed the absolute shit out of my insta360 lenses 3 times now (total cost to replace lens 3x $50), and when I smashed the screen to smithereens, they fixed it, OUT OF WARRANTY, for $50 including parts and labor, and they paid for shipping.

There is zero reason to buy a gopro, they don't have a single compelling product and HOLY FUCK the software is bad compared to insta360.

[CobrastanJorji]

It's amazing how a company doing something for you that they don't have to do triggers loyalty.

One time, I bought a couch online, and the company kept stringing me along with "we're behind but it's definitely coming soon" emails until I was well past my credit card's chargeback deadline. But when I eventually called the credit card company, they happily refunded me anyway. Now I will always, always use American Express for large purchases unless I have no other choice.

Amazon used to tell their employees a story about how a customer had his PlayStation stolen off the porch. He called Amazon, and they immediately shipped him a new one, overnight, with no hassle. The customer was a prominent New York Times business columnist, and he immediately wrote a glowing article about how amazing Amazon was, which was hugely impactful to Amazon. It informed the company's "customer obsessed" view for years (until eventually there was just too much money to be made in becoming a marketplace for whatever fake stuff people want to sell).

"Underpromise and overdeliver" is bad marketing advice, but it's fantastic customer retention advice.

[tmerc]

I participate in a niche sport that uses specialized software for data. Go pro is one of few cameras supported by that software for automatically syncing video to your data so you can judge what happened in context with data. Not to say you're wrong about most of that, just that there are still valid reasons to get a go pro for some people. We also hate on go pro for their failures, overheating, and just straight up not working, but they're the best option we have.

[theearling]

I grabbed the mission 1 pro, the menu is different from their hero line up and actually smooth and usable. Not to mention the GoPro Labs QR settings that make setting up a crazy recording profile or trigger easy.

I used my friends Ace Pro 2 and the menu was great but kinda clunky compared to GoPro.

No allegiance to any brand, but the Mission series software is fast and the footage, especially slowmo, is breathtaking

[suncemoje]

I'm curious as to what they could have done at what point in time to avoid this? Or was it "unavoidable"?

Apple managed to stay ahead of the competition for years now, but I guess the iPhone and Macs are just more complex products and revolve around an ecosystem, so not really comparable I guess. Still, I'm fascinated by the GoPro "case". I had a Hero 3 back in the days and loved it!

[thot_experiment]

I think comparing companies to Apple is kinda silly as they're unique. They're in a position of such market dominance that they can afford institutional arrogance.

However, it's very illustrative in this situation because I think GoPro made the mistake of thinking they were Apple, and at their outset they were compared to whatever other dross was on the market. Unfortunately it went to their head (almost certainly they were run by MBAs instead of product people or engineers, or anyone who would actually use an action camera seriously) and they completely lost sight of what their product even was.

I think it's completely avoidable, they could have just kept trying to make good products instead of whatever subscription service bullshit they attempted. They saw they had market dominance and so they tried to rape their customers as best they could because they didn't see the customers as having a choice. Don't do that. They cashed in on their market position for short term gains and it destroyed their future.

[kotaKat]

> GoPro is one of the most institutionally arrogant companies around > even worse customer service

Hahahahahahahhahaha. It's rotten fish heads all the way to the top.

When I was a pimply face youth I used to take calls for a multi-tenant call center in bumfuck nowhere and we somehow were given the contract to take tier 0 catch-and-throw calls for some MSP out in Florida that did contracted things like call center software solutions. (Puzzle piece for a logo. Out of Miami.)

Holy hell, the people that called from GoPro were awful. Absolutely rude, arrogant management. (And the MSP client themselves weren't a walk in the park either, and I swear they had it in for us alongside GoPro.)