GoPro Stock Crashes After Apple Gets Patent Approval For Mountable Camera [Video]
If Apple doesn’t already have enough gadgets on the market, they were just awarded a large number of patents — nearly three dozen — one of which is a mountable camera identical to that of GoPro, as per USA Today.
On Monday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent for a wearable camera that will most certainly become stiff competition for GoPro’s high definition camera that only went public in 2014.
As soon as the news leaked about this patent approval, GoPro stock began to crash. In fact, according to USA Today, GoPro shares “sunk more than 12 [percent].” The GoPro stock, which peaked at $93.85, closed Tuesday afternoon at $49.81.
CNN reports that GoPro is the leader in sports cameras, but that could change with Apple’s new patent.
In Apple’s patent application for the mountable camera, they state that the camera “can be mounted on bikes or scuba masks, and will take pictures and record sounds under water,” as reported by USA Today.
Apple blatantly discusses GoPro’s HD Hero2 digital camera in their patent application, comparing how Apple’s camera could be operated remotely by a watch. Apple goes on to criticize GoPro’s HD Hero2 camera, stating that it “includes only a single image capture system, which captures images from the front of the camera, making it more susceptible to damage and wind resistance,” according to CNN.
Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities analyst, told Reuters the following.
“I think that it will have about the same impact on GoPro as the iPhone has had on camera makers and that impact is that there are fewer cameras sold but the number isn’t zero.”
While both Apple and GoPro declined to comment, JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna told Reuters it is premature to think that Apple will launch a mountable camera any time in the near future. Apple has an abundance of patents that they never pursue.
“It does not seem to me that launching an action camera accessory is the most logical product extension for Apple to pursue right now.”
[Photo Credit: USAToday.com]
