[kunle]

They never took it seriously to begin with, and now that its clear that this is a serious market, they're too late. I wouldn't put it past them to invest additionally in GoPro (or some competitor).

Separately - who are GoPro's competitors?

[krasin]

In some sense, Pivothead [1], but the quality of the video is considerably lower.

[1] http://pivothead.com/products/eyewear/recon/black-jet

[bennesvig]

Agreed.

A competitor is Conture. Search devinsupertramp on YouTube to see a few videos they have sponsored him to make with the cameras. I think one is of a blob.

[clueless123]

There are plenty, but none matches the video quality/rugged-nes/price/ergonomics combination that the GoPro offers.

[barrkel]

The Drift Ghost is definitely better in almost all respects as a motorcycle helmet cam. The GoPro form factor is ill-suited to helmet mounting.

[rorrr]

There are tons of GoPro competitors:

Contour Contour+2, ContourRoam

Sony Action Cam (HDR-AS10 and HDR-AS15)

Polaroid XS7, XS20 and XS100

CamOne (camonetec.com)

AEE BlackEye XTR (Magicam SD21) (www.aee.com/en/)

Tachyon (tachyoninc.com)

UnmannedTech FPV HD camera

Tons of unknown asian brands like 808 #16 720p micro camera ($8 to $40).

[kjackson2012]

There are competitors, but none of them are a threat. The Contour has some traction, and the Sony ActionCam is pretty decent spec-wise, but nothing compares to the GoPro HD3 Black edition: 120FPS @ 720p, 240FPS @ WVGA, and even 30FPS @ 2.7k. They are still a generation or two ahead of their competitors.

The only thing I wish the HD3 Black had was GPS so that you could geotag your videos. That's about the biggest missing piece to that camera, otherwise it would be perfect.

[josephlord]

Apart from the 2.7K mode (where would that be useful) the Sony matches the specs you mention. Specs aren't everything and I haven't tried either product. Go Pro has the better accessory ecosystem at the moment and may still be the better product in many ways.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> The Contour has some traction,

I really like the look and design of contour's latest model (Contour +2), but having seen the user reviews on Amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, I feel that for me the software quality and functionality issues mean that I just won't buy it, unless this is greatly improved.

[rorrr]

Specs aren't everything, you can compete on price. Lots of these alternatives are MUCH cheaper than GoPros. 99% of people don't even know of resolutions higher than HD, and 99.9% wouldn't know what to do with them - there are no affordable 4K TVs yet, it will take a few years.

[barrkel]

Drift HD Ghost too; much better than GoPro as a helmet cam.