I’m somewhat of a techie in that I follow that world pretty closely. UBNT has released a new product called frontrow (https://www.frontrow.com/) that Saul mentioned a bit earlier. Basically this is an always on 399 dollar camera (they want it to become a platform). The collective response from the tech world has been a giant MEH! Barely anyone covered the press release and i have only found one review (see below). Nobody cares because nobody wants a 399 dollar always on camera. Here is the only real review I have seen about it and press that I have seen about it. https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/8/15/16146354/f…. .
UBNT is now trying to break into the non-nerd/engineer/power user world of consumer tech. Sure they have released consumer orientated network gear in the past but it has always been targeted at the uber network prosumers of the world. They won’t be able to get by on tech-specs , functionality, and word of mouth in the apple world of tech.
To sum this up. I see two huge problems. 1) Very few people want a 399 dollar always on camera (see go-pro’s demise) 2) this is hugely outside of UBNT’s circle of competence and their customer base.
One other thing to mention since I just found it. They have a community section on their website. There are only 17 posts with 12, yes 12 of them being from the moderator. The most read post has 394 views (camera specs) with the other posts have 20-100 views. Basically nothing.
I want such a camera. It is dangerous out there, and there are far too many false allegations made out there. It is to the point that I need to always have my iPhone with me just in case.
I have stopped 2 potential violent issues, one with people trying to break into my car while I was in it, simply by taking my phone out and pointing it at them so they knew they were on camera (that was actually with my old Blackberry about 3 or 4 years ago and frankly it took too long to get the camera going so I bluffed that it was going and the two “gentlemen” quickly scurried away). Had another incident when my dog was alleged to have attacked another person and their dog. Good thing I had my iPhone on me, as I started recording and made the guy tell me exactly where he was injured, where is the bite, where is the blood, on both him and his dog. He had no such issues, but he had started to make up this story. So that is at least 3 occasions.
While cycling it is good to have a rear camera to hold cars accountable if they want to “accidentally” hit you.
So there are good reasons for it. This said, $399 is a much higher price point than most will go I think absent some very good specific use case. But I would have to comparison shop and see if there was anything else comparable. If not, for me, it may very well be worthwhile. But then again, my life is not always sanguine.
No one will suspect they are being recorded unless you tell them. I handle many cases where the threat of false abuse charges are the norm, or people who have to handle kids and feel they are subject to false charges, this would make them feel a lot better. I am sure there are many use cases. The problem is, as the Verge article said, is marketing and finding the compelling use cases for the product.
I agree, at $399 it is not going to be a mainstream consumer product; albeit, GoPro was brought up, and GoPro still sells more than $1 billion a year in product so it is not like it is not a market with potential.
This is a product that may have some real useful use cases, but probably none of them mainstream.
Here’s the nice thing about being a holder of UBNT. Because they do things at such a low cost, they can afford to try and fail. The cost to procure this product have already shown up in their R&D expenses and they are minimal (8-9% of sales IIRC).
We can comfortably wait and see how the product does without being on pins and needles hoping it does well. If it fails, no big deal here.
The current drivers of the business are the legacy products which are now vastly improved and drive a higher ASP along with it.
Very few people want a 399 dollar always on camera (see go-pro’s demise)
I don’t know, I think you might be surprised at the markets that are out there for things like this camera. Like someone else posted in reply, as down as GoPro is, they still sell $1B in action cams a year, and at their peak, I think they sold around $600M in their largest quarter!
I think I saw in Saul’s initial link (or somewhere) that there was going to be windshield mount, I would be potentially interested as a devise to have in my car. It would depend on the features and what competition there is, but I’m just saying there would be a lot of uses for it. Even “fun” uses, like clipping it to your dog’s collar while you’re out and see what she actually does all day (maybe I don’t want to know)!
The local Fox affiliate in NY saw the press release and did a little local story on the new product. Then overnight the Drudge Report picked up and linked to that story. I still have no idea how many FrontRows they’ll sell, but it’s definitely getting in front of (potentially) millions more eyeballs today.
A quick check of Amazon shows cheapo dashboard cameras going for $30. I suspect you can get a better one for < $100
Not sure I believe in the market…
There are cheapo action cams, too, but as pointed out, GoPro still sells $1B worth of high end action cams a year.
I’m not trying to argue that this product will be a huge hit (I have no idea), just that people that can afford a quality product will buy it instead of the cheapo knockoffs.
Not to stress this point too much, but if you are trying to decide between investing in UBNT or not, let the current products guide you. IF we are to believe the CEO, the sales from this or any other new product are not baked into their guidance.
Again, UBNT can try and fail simply due to their incredibly low cost structure.
Investing in UBNT is, of course, a personal decision. I just wouldn’t want to see someone pass it up based on whether or not this new video recorder will do well. It really should not matter and is upside gravy.
From the investing boards I can count 2 people who have already bought it. I will likely be the 3rd one, I just have to convince my better half. (Profits from successful FrontRow will be far more remunerative to my portfolio than cost of the camera
All the above said, UBNTs forays in consumer products hasn’t got me invested in the company. I am actually very sceptical of Pera’s hobby projects.
The first one was SunMax - I thought it was a great product. For 2 years I was listening to solar city earnings call on how they would reduce the cost to 2.2 USD per Watt from 2.75 (?). Pera had got that down to 1.5 USD per watt with a plug and play system. The trick no - sales, marketing, administrative overheads or financing tie-ups. Like with WISP he expected the small local entrepreneurs to fill that void and spread that word. But Pera never invested enough to pump prime the ecosystem and it has never gained significant traction. Investment in pump priming the ecosystem is not bad and required. He needs to understand that. I believe the real WISP opportunity and potential is also stymied by it.
After Sunmax, I expected Amplifi to go down similar path. But surprisingly it actually did quite well (for the investment and marketing spend) and there was a viral youtube video which garnered 3 million views.
So who knows how Front Row will do ? A home run here will be awesome, but do not base your investing decision on it.
There are cheapo action cams, too, but as pointed out, GoPro still sells $1B worth of high end action cams a year.
I’m not trying to argue that this product will be a huge hit (I have no idea), just that people that can afford a quality product will buy it instead of the cheapo knockoffs.
Well both have now failed. After GoPro’s just announced a restructuring (1K person layoff), we get Ubiquity announcing that they’re closing down all of FrontRow and taking an $18.6 million hit:
During this quarter, GAAP and non-GAAP gross profit was $96.9 million, representing 38.6% of revenues. Gross margin includes $18.6 million of charges primarily related to provisions for obsolete inventory, vendor deposits and loss on purchase commitments associated primarily with the Company’s FrontRow consumer-oriented product launched in August 2017. Due to the lower than expected sales performance of FrontRow during the December 2017 holiday season, the Company was forced to assess the economic recovery of inventory and other related commitments.
