Watch Out GoPro – Here Comes Apple?

Most of us have our phones with us all the time – and it has an incredible camera to capture stills and video. The GoPro on the other hand, while now able to communicate with your phone, duplicates much of what our phones already do.

Hitcase already produces an alternative to GoPro that uses your phones camera.

Hitcase capitalized on this to produce a waterproof case with wide angle lens that mounts to a GoPro compatible mount. I’ve used the product with Hitcase’s Chestr Mount, behind a boat wakesurfing and of course riding, and it works well, but it hasn’t seemed to hamper consumers’ stoke for the ubiquitous, boxy GoPro.

You can mount the Hitcase on your bars or on the Chestr. And, because the case uses a GoPro compatible mount it can be used with those accessories as well.

The industry leader does well in terms of image quality but the product itself has never been easy to use – and it looks ridiculous mounted to the top of a helmet. Those factors didn’t slow the stock’s frantic rise after the IPO in June. Opening at $24, the stock eventually topped out at $98.47 – but had slumped to $60 as recently as Jan. 12th.

Yesterday the stock took a 12% hit to $48.50 when it was reported that Apple’s patent application for a mountable camera for sports applications, controlled by a smart phone or remote control, was granted. The patent was actually filed by Eastman Kodak in 2012 and was purchased by Apple and a consortium of companies, which includes Google, Samsung and Blackberry, as part of a $525 million deal in December 2012.

That doesn’t look much like an iPhone. Eastman Kokak filed the patent application in 2012.

Interestingly the patent application specifically mentions GoPro and names failings in terms of wind resistance (and how that affects image quality) and susceptibility to damage from vibration. Does this suggest Apple is eager to do battle with GoPro in the marketplace, or in the courtroom over intellectual property? Most analysts think it’s unlikely Apple is eyeing this market in the near term and that investor reaction was overblown.

In after hours trading on Wednesday the stock had recovered some to $52.34.

Do you GoPro or do you just Go? Would you like something that played better with your phone?