Hero 3+

I feel like the Hero 3+ is why the poor battery performance wasn't addressed with the hero 3.  Why fix something when they can sell us something new and make twice the profit.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Hero 3, but I feel like the 3+ is a greedy marketing scheme.

Sent from my GD300

Welcome to the world of consumer electronics.   

Welcome to the world of consumer electronics.   

+1

I'm not saying it's the case with GoPro but a lot of tech companies will have multiple generations of a product queue'd up for staggered release.     

-Spot-

I'm not saying it's the case with GoPro but a lot of tech companies will have multiple generations of a product queue'd up for staggered release.     

-Spot-

Bingo!  Simply making a good product and letting it ride doesn't make money.  When it comes to the tech industry, stuff like smartphones, cameras, computers, etc., if you're not putting a new product out every year or so, you're dying.  It used to be every two or three years but time to market cycles have been getting shorter and shorter.  Like Spot said, they need to have a constant flow of new designs coming through the pipeline to do that. 

I'm aware of why, but that doesn't make it right. 

Sent from my GD300

I'm aware of why, but that doesn't make it right. 

Sent from my GD300

Welcome to the free market system. 

It's not unusual.  The Hero 2 came out in Oct of 2011.  The Hero 3 came out in late 2012.  And now the Hero 3+ came out in  Oct 2013.  It's just normal product cycles ... think Xmas buying.  What I don't get is why they didn't call it the Hero 4.

-Allen

Probably because there was no improvement in frame rate or resolution, just size and battery life.

It's not unusual.  The Hero 2 came out in Oct of 2011.  The Hero 3 came out in late 2012.  And now the Hero 3+ came out in  Oct 2013.  It's just normal product cycles ... think Xmas buying.  What I don't get is why they didn't call it the Hero 4.

-Allen

I think they're trying to keep the model number from getting too high too quickly, kind of like what Apple seems to do with the labeling of the iphone.  Or maybe they thought there weren't enough major changes to the product for it to warrant it's own model number. 

I'm aware of why, but that doesn't make it right. 

Sent from my GD300

I gotta agree on this one. One of the reasons people love GoPro is they seem like a different kind of company. Pulling that kind of nonsense will just make people see them as another Sony, Apple, Microsoft, etc. If you haven't read about them, ask The Google about how their company came about.

I hope that the 3+ is just a response to customer feedback and not a profit-grab. I think GoPro could stay a cool company for a long time if they don't start abusing their customers.

Would you rather have waited another year to have a new GoPro 3+ than have the GoPro 3 (as is) available last year?

I don't think holding back battery performance makes sense at only 30% improvement, even from a "marketing scheme" perspective.  Likely they had component upgrades only available this year that enabled these improvements.

-Allen

I'm with Lee. It sucks.  But it's not like its a huge improvement. 30% more battery life. Whoopty-freakin-doo. I'm content with my Hero 3.
When it comes time to upgrade again it will be for some future upgrade that's a "true" upgrade.

Would you rather have waited another year to have a new GoPro 3+ than have the GoPro 3 (as is) available last year?

I don't think holding back battery performance makes sense at only 30% improvement, even from a "marketing scheme" perspective.  Likely they had component upgrades only available this year that enabled these improvements.

-Allen

I agree, in this case. I was responding more to the people above that are like "free market, deal with it." Which is true, but I think one of the things that people like about GoPro is that they're a cool company that is making something they're passionate about, and that's something that translates into their product and marketing, and people buy into that when they become GoPro owners. We believe GoPro is going to treat us right, and I am betting they probably are, and that is something that is important to (some) consumers.

All that said, it's easy to fault companies for adding a little feature or something and then rolling out a new line "just to make money", but guess what's funding the R&D for the next-gen product that you're all going to be swooning over?

Also, in my case, YAY for longer batter life, since I'm shooting for EOY to get a GoPro for the kayak.

That's what got me.  In the past they released true upgrades, but this is more like "this is what we actually should have done when we released the hero 3"

Lee, is your glass half empty today?   

-Allen