GoPro (GPRO) is finally addressing a fairly pressing question in the tech marketplace: What does my dog see when he jumps over a shark?
This morning the company started selling the Fetch mount, a camera harness for dogs ($59.99). It fits pooches of all sizes, and for the most extreme pups it will hold two separate cameras—one on the dog’s back, and one on its chest.
Here’s the pitch from GoPro PR: “Digging, running, swimming, hunting, and exploring—dogs can now showcase their world using the new Fetch mount.”
I have a 9-month-old Labrador retriever, which makes me pretty much the target market for this device. For example, here’s an old-fashioned video of my boy, Woodrow, getting rad with a fountain in the park the other day:
I’m going to tell him about the new Fetch when I get home, a conversation I think will go something like this:
Me: So there’s this new kind of collar that will let you wear a camera. Are you interested in “showcasing your world”?
Woodrow: Can I roll over on it?
Good question.
Does it taste good?
Also a good question.
Will it be annoying and kill my spirit?
Yet another good question.
Pigeons!
Smart as he is, Woodrow is terrible at corporate strategy. GoPro, however, is not. The dog harness sits at the middle of two core corporate goals: expanding GoPro’s customer base beyond weekend warriors and gnarly kite-boarders, and building out its ecosystem of gear so it relies less on its seminal product—a camera that at this point is so good, the replacement cycle is fairly long.
Investors seem to think GoPro can do this. The company is currently valued at $5.5 billion, roughly 31 times its trailing 12 months of profit. Other camera companies (see: Canon (CAJ), Nikon (7731:JP)) are not. Then again, you can’t strap a PowerShot to your dog, either.
