It had been an open secret for some time and has finally been confirmed. GoPro is closing its drone division and laying off more than 250 company employees. The main reason put forward by the company is that it is a very competitive market. Additionally, regulatory standards in the United States and Europe are hostile and will shrink the company's market for years to come.
The history of the company in this market has not had many joys. Their attempt to stand up to DJI, the market leader has not turned out as they thought. For this reason, the company is forced to make this decision, since the market has been described by the company itself as unsustainable.
Thus, Karma has become the first and only drone that GoPro has launched on the market in its history. The company itself has confirmed that they will continue to sell the product until stocks are exhausted. Besides, also they will continue to offer support to users who purchase it. So in this sense GoPro is doing things the right way.
The dismissal of more than 250 employees is undoubtedly the most negative aspect of this news. In addition, it already becomes the fourth significant dismissal of the company since 2016. So with this last dismissal the GoPro's number of employees will drop below 1.000 globally.
In fact, many question the future of the company. So it seems that 2018 is going to be a crucial year for it. The CEO himself has commented that it is going to be the year of solutions. Therefore, it follows that will present new plans with which to turn this situation around.
2018 promises to be a milestone year for GoPro. The company is obliged to turn the situation around if they do not want to end up disappearing. So we will have to be attentive to the plans they present in the coming weeks or months.