GoPro Innovation Case Study
Californian native and keen surfer, Invented the GOP after a surf trip to Australia in 2002. It is small and non-descriptor looking, deceptive really, however is a wearable camera and camcorder. Its size means it can be mounted almost anywhere with ease, whilst also having the capacity to shoot videos and stills in full HAD.
The GOP was the first camera of its kind; small and virtually indestructible, and able to be mounted practically anywhere due to Its size, portability and versatile mounts, such as the ability to be fixed to helmets, the body, arioso pieces of equipment or a specially designed hand-held pole.
“Go Pro makes It possible for people to have professional quality footage of their life, during their life most meaningful moments.
The GOP first took off in the world of extreme sports; appealing to action and adventure lovers around the world, and has prospered due the dawn of Youth and social media. Deep sea dives, daring ski Jumps, or Jumping out of planes are some of the many scenarios the Goop’s devoted fan base have filmed and posted on Youth, “capturing some of the most Jaw dropping action shots ever recorded”, with its consumers commonly being known as an army of “bruised and engaged stuntmen…
Trying to live up to the products name: Hero.Design and Technological Activity/ Entrepreneurial Activity/ Intellectual Property “The original goal for GOP was to produce a camera that the average surfer could use to capture themselves and their friends while they’re surfing”.
Woodman believed that an entrepreneur was more likely to succeed if they followed their passions when starting their own company.
Through taking his own advice, Woodman ended up founding the company GOP, and developing the GOP Hero camera systems. During a 5-month surfing trip through Australia and Indonesia in 2002, Woodman came up with the idea of creating a wearable wrist strap system that could secure a camera to a surfer’s body. All the available straps at the time were made from rubber, and were generally uncomfortable and awkward to wear, and most were easily broken too. Whilst In Indonesia, Woodman met Brad Schmidt, who is now the Creative Director of Medal and Production at GOP, and upon their return to America hey spent the following two years creating, developing, and testing prototypes, until the first GOP camera was released in 2004.
In the initial days of GOP, Woodman would only hire people he was in college with, went to high school with, or was related to; he surrounded himself with people he loved, and people he knew he could trust.
The company has now grown from the Minimal/people to 300 employees, never en NAS always Sal a Tanat tense TLS/people were as productive as 40, and that because they always had so much fun “that it built a halo around the brand GOP, where we are now a really fun, all- inviting, loving brand.
The growth of the company has almost fully been attributed to the dawn of Youth and social media, as so many enthusiasts upload and tag their GOP experiences on Youth, as well as Backbone, with a video being posted every two and a half minutes – Woodman recently referring to GOP as a Virally grown brand’. Even though the GOP started a technological revolution in the area of wearable cameras/camcorders and impossible angles, in the beginning Woodman wasn’t too concerned with the concept of intellectual property; most of the big companies had o idea it was even in development.
In recent times however, none of the Goop’s prototype testing is done in the US, for fears that prototypes will be stolen, so for the GOP HAD Hero 3, a research and development trip was taken to the coast of Nicaragua, where Woodman, Schmidt, and the other executives tested the cameras, by mounting them to their surfboards and catching some waves. Development/ Timing/Marketing/Future Projections In 2002, after a failed business venture, Goop’s Founder and CEO Nick Woodman embarked on a 5-month surfing tour of Australia and Indonesia, deciding to seek inspiration for a new company by spending time on his favorite hobby, surfing.
He took a mm camera on tour with him, to strap to his wrist, with the intent of capturing quality actions shots of himself and his friends surfing.
The camera he had was awkward to work with, and would either hit him in the face, or fall off during the middle of a wave. This proved to be a challenge, and he wanted to be both the camera man and the surfer; he desperately wanted a solution so that he and his friends could capture all the action without having to take turns at being the camera an on shore, and with amateur photographers having no way of getting close enough to get good quality shots in the water.
The name GOP stemmed out of this desire for a camera/camera system that allowed anyone to capture professional angles and good quality shots easily. He envisioned a mm camera that could be strapped to a person’s wrist whilst surfing, as well as thinking about the possibility of an elastic-type band that was both strong and adjustable, and could secure a camera to a surfer’s body. At the time, most wrist straps were far from fashionable; they were nearly rubber, and were normally awkward, painful and easily broken.
Whilst still in Indonesia, Woodman and his wife ended up buying around 600 bead and shell belts for approximately $2 each from a market in Bali, to come up with the funds for the project. When he and his girlfriend Jill returned to America, they drove along Californians coast in Woodman’s, selling these belts out the back of his ’74 Van for $60 each. He also began testing some prototypes he had designed of a wrist- mounted camera, and after 2 years, when he finally felt he had the design right, he Doorway u Trot Nils mother Ana sat tea ten company GOP.
I en TLS Go camera system was sold in 2004; it was a mm film version. Samsung, amongst other corporate giants, have been working on and developing camcorders for years, however the GOP cameras stand out specifically for their ruggedness, as well as being easy to use, and having better image and sound qualities.
When asked about the Goop’s growth, in an interview in June 2012, Woodman said “Our customers going out and capturing interesting footage with it and sharing it online is really what is driving Goop’s growth; it is a virally grown brand in the hands of our customers.
Youth and Backbone have helped make the go pro what it is today. ” The vast majority of GOP videos are user generated, with a new GOP tagged video being posted to Youth every two and a half minutes. In 2012, GOP released a Wi-If Abacas and Wi-If Remote Combo Kit, which means multiple cameras can be controlled at once, as well as being able to stream directly to smartness, tablets and the Internet. In the future, GOP are also looking at expanding beyond hardware and into media, and developing their own television show, featuring mostly extreme sports videos shot by GOP users.
GOP as a company sold more than 800,000 cameras last year, as well as growing by around 300%, and so with its loyal fan base and the recent release of its GOP HAD Hero 3, the cameras seem to Just be growing in popularity, as well as continuously technologically advancing.
Product Development/ Technological Aspects/ How It Works The first GOP camera system was sold in 2004; however the ‘GOP HERO mm’ was made available for sale on April 13, 2005. The mm film version weighed around 0.5 pounds, and came as a package that included the camera, a Lear case with quick release, a camera strap and a ski glove adapter lash. It was fully functional to 15 feet of water, included a roll of film, and was marketed as a ‘reusable wrist camera’. In 2008, the ‘Digital HERO 5’ was released, and was the first of the GOP cameras to use a 1700 ultra-wide lens, as well as having the capacity to take 5 megalith still photos, and capture standard definition videos.
It was also the first of the GOP cameras to take a memory card; functioning with a BIB SD card, as well as having NUMB of internal memory. It ran on batteries, and it was now perfectly functional up to 100 feet of water. Since the first digital GOP camera, there have been another 4 released, including the newest GOP HAD cameras to come on the market; the ‘GOP HAD Hero 3’, which come in three different editions, with the company describing the separate editions as being; consumer level, presumes level, and then professional level.
All of the GOP HAD Hero cameras have no viewfinders, or zoom lenses, and with the only menu being a small 2-bit black and white LCD screen on the front of the camera. GOP HAD Hero 3 Black Etalon Is ten newest, Ana Test quality GOP on ten market today, with many retailers and reviewers calling it “the best action camera we have ever used; the footage it takes is simply unparalleled”.
The GOP Hero 3 is 25% lighter than the previous model, as well as being 30% smaller.
On the front there is a six-element spherical lens, that provides a 1700 field of view like the previous GOP camera’s, however with twice the image sharpness and a reduced amount of barrel distortion. It also has 3 buttons, instead of the usual two; en being the mode/power button, one being start/stop/record, and one to turn Wi-If on and off. There are two lights on the front as well; when recording one blinks red, and when the Wi-If is on the other blinks blue.
There are also smaller red flashing lights on the top, bottom and back that can be seen from practically any angle too, so that it is very clear when it is recording.
When the Wi-If is enabled, it activates a wireless connection with the GOP smartened app, or the wireless remote, meaning you can control your GOP from your phone, or by using the wireless remote, more Han one GOP can be controlled at the same time. Alongside the actual camera itself, stand the near-indestructible case and versatile selection of mounts.
Being waterproof to a depth of about mm/ 180 feet, the polycarbonate casing allows the GOP to accompany users on a variety of ocean adventures, such as surfing, snorkeling, and skin diving. It features a two-stage lock, upgraded from the original single-stage lock, to provide extra security, and is known to be drop-proof from around 3,000 feet.
One of the most appreciated things about the GOP casing is that is it fully user-serviceable, meaning any of the components can be ordered independently if a replacement is needed. GOP also make a variety of mounts, including helmet, wrist, and chest mounts, handlebar and surfboard mounts, as well as various other adhesive mounts, or the option of a hand-held pole.
This has allowed for the camera to go everywhere people can go, as well as the many places they can’t, have been used in some cases to film the inside of the mouths of alligators, sharks and polar bears.
