Report: Chinese company Xiaomi may purchase GoPro

Mike FL Japan was doing exactly the same not so long ago before evolving to create their own unique technology and brands. We're seeing China go through a similar transition now, look at DJI as a great example of this. Also their enormous population probably has a much larger effect on their GDP ranking. America has been busy protecting redundant and unprofitable industries while China has been working it's butt off, they're playing the long game and will eventually be #1. It's unavoidable but the current US policies being put in place will probably hasten this change of position.

Xiaomi makes living by copying other US name brand products, but has its own name MI or Xiaomi ext. Other Chinese companies makes living by:
- counterfeit US name brand, or even Chinese well known name brand, or
- have misleading brand.

That's how Chinese companies work as always.

Yi is one of xiaomi arm...

You're making a common mistake of collapsing any Chinese-based entity with China as a nation.

Xiaomi is a private company, not an arm of the Chinese government. While it's true that the division between companies and the government in many cases can get a little blurred, I don't believe that Xiaomi gets to dip in to the Chinese central bank and take any of the $1.17T.

China really isn't a communist country in the traditional sense anymore. It's really a strange hybrid of authoritarian, central planning and a capitalistic market economy. I'd call it communism-on-paper.

+1 for "I'd call it communism-on-paper." or the Chinese communism party "did a very very bad job of teaching you communism" as the HBO said to the "Exiled Chinese Billionaire". Take a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkOsgh5kcgQ

"The Party" and "the Party Central" are very different. In China many join just to be able to climb to higher places, not just in politics. The Party has a few dozen million members but many aren't really tied down in politics than they are in office politics. To be able to get something big done in China, bribing and befriending Party members is inevitable, but that doesn't mean yielding to political demands or some control of the company. The Party Central doesn't pay attention to most companies and individuals usually don't make those sort of demands.

Foxconn makes .... your iPhone ... your GoPro ... your soldiers helmets ... clothing ... materials ... everything that is sold in the U.S. are Made-in-China ... China owns America ... thru purchase of bonds ...

Foxconn is Taiwanese with lots of manufacturing in China. The governments of each country though don't like each other yet they're good business partners. It's complicated.

No, it's not complicated. They're all Chinese. Forget about the politics, the Chinese are very pragmatic. If there's a chance to do business, they'll live in peace, and they mostly do.

The Taiwanese government isn't playing smart these days and Foxconn is looking into better infrastructure support by moving more production to mainland China. They're treading carefully at the moment but they may flip when it makes business sense. Taiwan is a small island after all and it doesn't have many cards to play.

Actually, no. There is a use for a rugged action cam. I've been using sjcam since their ver 4000. That was about 4 years ago if I am not mistaken. It cost only U$70. And it did the same things that the gopro then but cost U$300-400. They still sell that sj-4000 but now at U$50. And now there are so many other models to choose from. Even the Yi is too expensive for some of their models vs sjcam.

Action cams that can go underwater, is a big thing that we used it a bit. Prior to this, I had to buy a U$400 lumix underwater cam.

The problem with GoPro is - they overcharged customers. Once people wizened up, their market share shrunk. They were just living in their hype and hoping people don't get to know how much their cameras really cost. Reminds me of Croc shoes that cost U$40-70 when I can get the same thing for U$4-5 from a no-name brand!

> Only extreme sport athletes will keep buying them.

You do realize that's millions of people around the world not including grassroots/hobby race car drivers and motorbike riders. I see tons of people on bikes and stake boards here with action cams, before that especially at skate parks I saw them with SLR's The footage I get from my Sony FDR X3000 at 1080 60p is quite nice and I got it for recording trails as I hike them instead of a couple of EM10's and lenses. The IS on that thing is quite good.

Who in their mind would put a $600-1000 phone on top of their helmet when a $50-200 action cam with weather sealing will do a way better job.

RED i
I totally love my two Sony FDR-X3000. Freakin' stabilization (optical) is beautiful!

I wouldn't ride my scooter without one.

We bought the cheaper sjcam-4000 to use for outdoors, shallow water swimming. Later, I used it as a dashcam. When I finally got an E-motorcycle, I put one in my helmet when I ride it.

There are so many uses for these small devices. If you don't use one or have no imagination to see its uses, then it's your loss.

I am watching the prices and waiting for the 4k versions to go down in price. It's about U$200 for a good 4k one. I think it's dipped that amount now. If it is around U$120-140, I might consider getting one. But it won't be the GoPro brand.

Sony FTW! People who choose GoPro mostly weren't even looking.

@Corkcampbell, I just spent 20 minutes reading about it on various sites, and the consensus seems to be that it won't work at all on my carrier Verizon. Did you have anything useful to ad to the conversation?