GoPro is confident that the problems that plagued the GoPro Karma have been solved, as the much maligned drone is back on the market today. The drone was pulled from store shelves and universally recalled from all owners last November over issues that would cause the drone to fall out of the sky without warning.
According to the Verge, at a small press meeting at CES this year, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman said that they were “a little bit embarassed that it was something as basic as a battery retention issue,” and that, “at the same time we’re relieved that we can show the world that we do understand drones, we do understand the technology, and that it was an unfortunate mechanical engineering slip-up that led to the recall of Karma.”
The Karma is again listed as a product on GoPro.com and is showing to be available at the end of March on B&H.
The Karma was hit with the unexpected competition of the DJI Mavic last year, which many reviewers found to be a lot more reliable than GoPro’s much-awaited drone. Some even went so far as to say that it wasn’t just not as good as the Mavic, but it wasn’t really as good as any other modern drone of the same class (or even those heavier and bulkier like the Phantom 4).
Not long after the announcement of the Karma recall last year, GoPro said they would be cutting their workforce by 15% amid sliding sales, and their stock has not improved much since that point last year. Hopefully the Karma’s second shot at flight will help a company searching for anything to pull them out of the slump.
