GoPro, like Xerox, is one of those popular names that has become synonymous with an entire category of products. It's not surprising—when Nick Woodman founded the company in 2002, small, go-anywhere action cameras just didn't exist. And while it took a few generations of product development to establish the category, you could be forgiven for calling any small, tough video camera a GoPro, just as you would if you asked for a copy of something by saying, "Please Xerox this."

Despite being a household name, GoPro has gone through some tough times. Its stock is trading at roughly half the price it did two years ago (but has remained fairly steady over the past year) and its Karma drone never took off in the marketplace.

GoPro in 2019 is smaller, leaner, and more focused. I sat down and spoke with CEO Nick Woodman about the company's wins, losses, and what's coming next. We touched on a lot of different subjects: software updates, digital stabilization, virtual reality, and lessons learned from the Karma drone.

Hero7 and HyperSmooth

The GoPro Hero7 Black adds stabilization to 4K60 video, and is the lone Hero with live streaming sup

We started talking about a recent success, the flagship Hero7 Black camera, which includes a system that delivers gimbal-like stabilization without the gimbal—HyperSmooth.

Woodman: We're pretty proud of what we pulled off with that camera. When we made the claim of gimbal-like stabilization, people really kind of scratched their heads and questioned whether that was a marketing pitch, but to see everyone test it and realize that it works as advertised—if not better than advertised—was exciting for us.

PCMag: Did the work you did with the Fusion's stabilization system end up in the Hero7?

Woodman: I can't go into too much technical detail as we don't want to tip our hat on how we're doing what we're doing. But I will say the cultural impact of working in 360 cameras and developing the stabilization performance of Fusion has definitely had an impact on Hero7.

We recognize for our customers and the way that they use our products that stabilization comes into play almost every time…it's a way to differentiate our products from not only other cameras in our category, but other cameras period, of any type. Because the common denominator to all use cases is people want stable footage.

A small number of consumers are willing to buy a separate gimbal...and deal with the cost and complexity and added gadgetry of a gimbal to get a stable shot. But the number of people willing to do that is actually low. Even considering how terrific gimbal stabilization results are. People just didn't want to deal with the hassle of using a gimbal. I'm really proud for GoPro of bringing that level of stabilization to the camera itself, and setting a new bar, not just for our category but for all cameras…HyperSmooth is very impressive, but we're not done yet.

Fusion, 360 Capture, and VR

PCMag: You've continued to evolve Fusion, now with new firmware, in beta, which adds 24fps and increases output resolution. How long until we see new hardware?

Woodman: We've learned a lot with Fusion. Primarily that people who are buying 360 cameras are interested in what they can do beyond just creating spherical content for VR consumption. What people are most interested in is creating traditional non-VR content, using the 360 capabilities to capture and create effects that otherwise wouldn't be possible with a traditional camera.

We are very focused on exploiting the full capabilities of Fusion and then some with what we're developing next. I can't share anything about form factor or any specifics, but what I can tell you is that since the beginning we've said Fusion is a development platform to get to what comes next. You should expect some pretty significant innovation in what comes next.

PCMag: Let's talk software. Fusion gives you the ability to reframe shots in a desktop editing application or with your smartphone. But the tools can be daunting to use.

Woodman: We are very focused on simplifying the experience. Not only the experience, but the concept for people...is a bit daunting.

I do think that unlike VR, which...sort of like 3D before it has been pushed on consumers that aren't really interested...I think the promise of a 360 camera for an average consumer is significant. Not only because you don't need to aim it and because of the stabilization and performance, but because of the number of interesting ways that it can help people capture and share experiences, it's not unlimited, but it's vast compared to a typical camera.

PCMag: Splitting the concepts of 360-degree capture and VR playback is something that isn't necessarily intuitive.

Woodman: We've thought a lot about why VR hasn't taken off with consumers in the way that people thought it might. And this translates into our thinking on 360 cameras and how we think about them as solutions that consumers are actually interested in.

[VR has] been popular for gamers because it's such an engaging experience when somebody wants to engage…They want to make decisions, they want to feel like they're there…When you play a VR-based video game for a while you're tired. You've just made 10,682 decisions. It's a bit like a Universal Studios ride. It's fun every once in a while, but it's not something you want to go do on a daily basis.

As far as VR video and photo content, think about the state of mind you're in when you want to watch a movie. You want to lean back and just lose yourself in the story. You don't want to make decisions. You've been making decisions all day long. You want to shut your brain off and be entertained.

A great story is a great story. You get incrementally more information by being able to look all around, but it's almost like you got incrementally more information when you saw a video in 3D. But it wasn't worth the expense of the equipment or the hassle or the headache you'd get from watching a 3D movie. In that way VR feels like it's sort of falling into that same bucket.

Storytelling Challenges

PCMag: Right. And those extra perspectives, if you aren't looking in the right place with VR footage, you may miss the actual action.

Woodman: We want to eliminate that aspect—the FOMO or stress that you're not looking at the right spot. [Reframing Fusion footage] creates another layer of work. It's a powerful control, a powerful tool, for the pro-minded content creator that wants to go back and reframe. We'll continue to offer that performance and capability, but for the average consumer, eliminating that step, and allowing them to get that work done at the time of capture, is really important.

Because then it becomes just a camera, that does an incredible job of getting the shot, super stable, but you only have to explain to the consumer using it, "Dude it's a camera, just use it the way you use a normal camera and it's going to look amazing."

That's not even having to get into the discussion of what they may or may not want to do afterwards in the app to reframe. That's when people's heads start to explode and they think wait, I'm going to have to capture this twice. And we're seeking to avoid the whole second part of the conversation and be able to present them that capability, in the form of a simple-to-understand camera.

PCMag: So you're talking about using machine learning, subject recognition, and maybe some internal sensors to drive automated edits?

Woodman: Possibly. You're headed in the right direction. You can imagine that at a point, the hardware is a platform on which you build software that can take a lot of the know-how out of the equation for the user. And 360 cameras really serve as a platform to create a more automated and fool-proof solution for consumers.

We're just at the dawn of the 360 industry, and it's exciting that we get to play a leadership role as we have in our traditional Hero camera line. And it's also great to see the cross-pollination, what we're learning with Fusion definitely is making it to Hero, and what we're learning with the Hero camera line is making it to what comes next [after Fusion].

The benefit to the GoPro user is that it's all going to be tied seamlessly together with a consistent user experience. Our customers that know a Hero camera will easily be able to go into a future 360 camera from GoPro and have a successful experience.

The Importance of Software

PCMag: And the experience, especially when it comes to hardware and software working together, separates GoPro from competitors who may not offer any sort of software solution.

Woodman: It was a hard transition to evolve from just a hardware company…I think we started to get good at software around Hero4. We've made marked improvements since.

The Quik editing app is one of the most popular mobile editing apps out there, and the GoPro app has improved dramatically in quality from year to year…It's still a little funky how the Quik app is separate from the GoPro app, but this year they'll combine into one GoPro app experience…and we're dramatically going to improve the edit capabilities.

All of this is tied into our Plus cloud subscription service. I can't share any specifics, but hang tight.

Note: After this interview was conducted, GoPro announced significant upgrades to its $4.99 per month Plus subscription service. It now offers unlimited storage for videos and photos, and subscribers can take advantage of 50 percent discounts on mounts and accessories. If you're in the US you'll also get no-questions-asked replacements for damaged cameras—GoPro promises to extend this to the rest of the world later this year.

Woodman: Everything that our customers capture with a GoPro will move automatically to the app, and then automatically to your Plus account. It's a seamless experience that's been years in the making.

Lessons of Karma

PCMag: We're tight on time, so I have one more question. The Karma drone had a rocky start in the market, and GoPro later made the decision to exit the drone space. What did the experience teach you?

Woodman: We're more focused. We're asking our customer what they want us to build for them and we're building it more than we ever have before.

Karma was a great learning experience, it was a great challenge. I'm really proud of what our engineering and product definition teams produced. We went from literally an idea to Karma in two years. We went from one person to a hundred-plus person team in that period. And we really built the race car as we were driving it in the race if you will…

I think that in retrospect, we got very excited about a product category that we should have engaged our customer base more. And learned just how many customers there are for drones…There are far more people in the world that are interested in buying a simple-to-use Hero camera than there are people interested in buying a more complex, more expensive flying camera.

People don't buy things. They buy solutions. If you buy a thing you usually regret it. Things don't do anything for you. But solutions make your life easier, more enjoyable, and more productive. We're now focused on identifying what are the problems that our customers have, and building solutions.

PCMag: Despite the first-generation growing pains and issues, I would have loved to have seen what the second-generation Karma looked like.

Woodman: We developed it, and it was dope. And that was hard, because when you actually have something and you've done all this work, but then you recognize it just does not make sense to continue with this...That's a really hard decision to make.

You know what I love about what you just stated was that you really wanted to see what we would have come out with, because hopefully we've done a good job demonstrating to you that our product and engineering people here are amazing. Whatever they go and develop is pretty impressive and exciting and you can always expect it to be special from GoPro. We are not a business that goes and puts out "meh."

Don't worry, we've got a lot of exciting things for you outside drones. You'll be stoked.

Further Reading

Video Camera Reviews