No, you aren’t dreaming. Karma, the ill-fated drone launched last year by GoPro, has returned! After a massive recall in November 2016, units are now on sale again with the issue behind its highly-publicised malfunctions apparently solved.
Karma was originally launched in October 2016 to mass acclaim. The modular design of GoPro's first UAV device allowed owners to not only remove and replace the mounted GoPro unit but also detach the gimbal and use it as a handheld stabiliser. These vlogger friendly abilities provided the reasoning behind GoPro's repeated mantra that Karma was "So much more than a drone. " Unfortunately, within a month, repeated incidents of devices falling right out of the sky meant that the party was cut short.
Burst Mode rundown of GoPro's woes
During months of horrendous stock plummets, staff layoffs, and resignations, the company ran a massive in-house investigation into the reason for Karma's crashing issue.
According to a statement, GoPro has since concluded that ". . . the latch mechanism which secured the drone's battery. . . " was at fault. During the motion of flight, this latch would flip open, causing the battery to pop out and cut off the Karma drone's power supply. In the time since, GoPro's team have redesigned the battery latch to hopefully stop this happening.
"Karma is the ultimate aerial, handheld and wearable stabilisation solution for the GoPro community," says GoPro Founder and CEO, Nick Woodman. "As the consumer drone market continues to grow, Karma delivers the most versatile solution at a very accessible price. "
/GoPro
While we are glad to see the dream of Karma is not dead, we are taken aback by how ambitious GoPro is being with this relaunch. Specifically, that there has been no decrease in price from its original retail figure. Karma is still selling at US$799. 99 for the drone alone and US$1099. 99 with a GoPro Hero5 thrown in. While we are impressed by the confidence this shows, we're wondering why the company didn't offer a reduction in light of the negative PR the recall has caused for this product. What's more, it is now competing directly against DJI's Mavic drone, a device with a strong head start and rave reviews.
I for one, have sincere hopes that, this time around, Karma can be a success. From its very announcement, this drone has suffered from issue after issue but it nevertheless has shown a brilliant spark of innovation. The relaunch is now marketing Karma with the new slogan of "Hollywood in a backpack" and though that may be a lofty claim, if Karma can get at least a modicum of support, we may see great things in future UAV products from GoPro.
. digitalrev.com2017-2-2 03:00
