GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman on building a Google Glass-style wearable: don’t count on it
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple years, odds are you’ve seen one of Nicholas Woodman’s little cube cameras strapped to someone’s chest or stuck to a car. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, the GoPro CEO was asked if he’d be interested in moving beyond the cube and mount form factor and into something more svelte, Glass-like, even. While he found value in Google Glass’ ability to shoot first-person video, Woodman isn’t so keen on such a device due to its limited use case (it can really only be worn on your face). “The Google Glass form factor doesn’t provide the versatility that has been so key to GoPro’s success,” he said, before going on to extol the virtues of having a camera that can be mounted on your chest, your car or pretty much anywhere. Essentially, he sees the fact that GoPro can provide any point of view for video as a key selling point for his cameras.
Instead, Woodman sees Glass (or other such wearables) as an excellent way for folks to interact with GoPro cameras. He pointed out the camera line’s functionality with current smartphones — using a handset as a remote control, or previewing and sharing footage, noting that wearables could provide similar features, only in hands-free fashion. So, we won’t see any new GoPro models meant solely for wearing, but you can bet we’ll be seeing a GoPro Glass app at some point.
