As you’re well aware I love all things technology. Transport tech, medical tech, and consumer tech — it’s all good to me. I enjoy understanding how things develop over time. How innovation and research can advance tech further and faster than ever before.
The speed at which tech gets better also blows me away. I call it the law of Technological Compounding. Tech builds on other tech in a compounding fashion. Much in the way your money compounds with interest over time. Except with tech the payoff is usually far more than just money. It’s also a catalyst for a change in life.
And in my lifetime alone I’ve seen amazing technologies appear seemingly from nowhere. The personal computer, the mobile phone…the smartphone. These are all technologies we all know about that have changed the fabric of society.
If you’re an avid reader of tech insider you’ll also know I love car tech. I find cars to be a fascinating study of technology and innovation. In recent times I’ve written to you about electric cars, which I think will dominate the market in the future. Of course that’s assuming improvements in battery technology and range.
I’ve also explained the coming future of carbon fibre composites in car making. Light weighting is one of the biggest gains car companies can make in efficiency.
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And in a world where efficiency is everything, carbon fibre is a natural technology progression. But it’s expensive to make and use. Well, it has been in the past. But there is a pioneering Aussie tech company looking to change all that. And with their unique, patented technology they could turn the car making industry on its head.
Then there’s other aspects of car tech. I’m intrigued by the R&D that goes into making them. And love the ‘out there’ design and thinking of concept cars. To really dig deep into the mechanics of a car company like Volkswagen, Audi or BMW is really a study in technology.
But for all the amazing technology of modern cars sometimes you just want to see (and hear) a muscle car doing donuts.
Bit of old school tyre smoke gets the synapses firing
I do love the technology aspect of cars. But there’s also something else about cars that makes the synapses in my brain fire. I’m not sure what it is, but I have my suspicions as to what it might be.
You see there’s something about an 845bhp (630kw), four-wheel drive, 1965 custom built Ford Mustang that just sends tingles down my spine. Note: for a reference point the top-spec HSV GTS has 430kw of power under the hood.
A Mustang like I’ve just described is pretty low tech if you were to roll it up next to an Audi A8. But then again if you’re in an A8 you like your car to be smooth, sleek, comfortable and luxurious.
If you have an 845bhp custom built Mustang that’s going to rock your socks off and bust your bones with its guttural roars, you’re typically only going to want to do one thing with it…
Source: autoevolution.com
You clearly can’t buy the car above from a dealer. That’s because it’s Ken Block’s latest ‘monster’ for his Gymkhana videos. Now it’s likely you have no idea what Gymkhana is. And fair enough. It’s basically Ken Block (a professional rally driver) throwing a car around an urban landscape for fun.
The Mustang above (and Ken) is the star of the seventh Gymkhana. That means Block has done this six times before. And let me tell you, if you want to see the excellence of a professional driver watch all seven. They’re breathtaking.
Aside from the low-tech nature of this, there’s something I noticed during the latest Gymkhana. In fact looking back over the last few it’s in every one. And you can see it too, if you look hard enough.
On the Mustang in the picture there’s a whole bunch of little ‘things’ sticking off the car. There’s one on the front of the roof. There’s one by the engine air intake. And there’s one just by the rear C pillar.
These aren’t aerials. They’re tiny little HD cameras. Specifically they’re GoPro [NASDAQ:GPRO] cameras. And they’re everywhere. But they’re not just everywhere in Block’s Gymkhana videos. They’re everywhere in the life. And I notice more and more of them every day.
It’s the invasion of the tiny camera!
GoPros are little robust cameras that have been in use with extreme sports enthusiasts for years. But where these little cameras have gone from the videos of surfers, motocross riders and rally drivers, they’re now in the hands of everyday people.
On my way back to Melbourne I had a bit of time to kill at Gatwick airport and Dubai airport. At both of these there was the usual technology section. A huge array of phones, tablets, laptops and cameras. But what I noticed was there was an entire stand dedicated to GoPro cameras.
Now in these shops there were only two companies with their own stand. And these brand specific stands only had their own products on display. Everything else was in a separate section.
One of these companies was Apple. You know what it looks like; clean, well laid out, Macs on one side, MacBook’s on the other…all very ‘Apple’.
But the other company was GoPro. It didn’t really hit me how influential GoPro was. But then I also noticed a young Japanese couple walk past me. They had their travel backpacks on, and the man had a GoPro camera. It was on the end of a handgrip and he was filming their entire experience.
What’s clear is GoPro make money, and they’re hugely popular. They sell a lot of cameras. The year ending 31 December 2013, they had almost bang on $1 billion in revenue. That’s almost double the prior year, which was double the year before that.
What’s really interesting is in 2013 GoPro’s expenditure in sales and marketing was only $157,771. Seriously.
This highlights something that very few companies are able to achieve. They have build a reputation and ‘fan base’ to rival the likes of Apple and Red Bull. The name GoPro now has far more meaning than just a company that makes cameras.
That is a remarkable achievement for a company that’s only 12 years old. And the meteoric rise of this camera company into a lifestyle brand has reflected in their explosive share price since listing.
I have to admit GoPro has an element of the ‘cool factor’ that Red Bull has managed to achieve. In fact the parallels between the two are easy to find (if you take away the products they sell). But can it last forever?
My first instinct is no, it can’t. But then I see a half dozen GoPros on Ken Block’s beast and a normal couple walking through an airport GoPro in hand…and I think, well, maybe it can.
Sam Volkering,
Technology Analyst, Revolutionary Tech Investor
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