GoPro Has Given Up On Drones

GoPro unveiled its much-rumored Karma consumer drone in late 2016 and released it a few months later. However, the company had to recall all units in November last year due to a battery issue that caused its drones to just fall out of the sky. The Karma was re-released a few months back but it didn’t really hold its own against competitors like DJI. GoPro’s drone ambitions have come to an end now, though. The company has confirmed that it’s bowing out of the drone business.

It was reported last week that the company had laid off 200-300 employees and that they were mostly from its drone division. This suggested that the future of this division was uncertain.

GoPro confirmed during its quarterly earnings report today that the Karma is its first and last drone. It’s not going to release a successor to the $799 Karma drone despite claiming that the Karma had “reached the #2 market position in its price band in 2017.” GoPro did acknowledge that the product “faces margin challenges in an extremely competitive aerial market.”

The company is going to exit the drone market completely after selling its remaining Karma inventory. GoPro has said that it will continue to provide service and support to Karma customers.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: gopro, gopro karma