Giroptic, the French 360 camera manufacturer which was one of the first of its kind when it launched a decade ago, has announced it is closing its doors.
The company posted a message on its website by founder Richard Ollier, which reads:
I am sad to announce that we are closing Giroptic today March 5th, 2018.
This journey started in 2008 with the idea to bring 360 capture to everyone – at a time when almost nobody had seen a 360 image. I knew this adventure would not be easy, everything had to be re-invented. You do not capture, share or view a 360 image the same way you do with a regular image…
Last year, we shipped 20 000 cameras all over the world. Unfortunately, in a newly born market, this was not enough to build a sustainable business over time. For the past 8 months, we have been trying to find a new home for our technology. We were about to close a deal with a leading smartphone manufacturer – this would have helped us scale and deploy our vision. Sadly, it did not happen, last minute.
Sometimes you can be ahead of your time – I will always remember the excitement people would share with us after they had used our products…
While Giroptic was one of the first to market with 360 cameras back in 2008, the company has struggled to compete with newcomers to the market like Ricoh, Samsung, Insta360, 360Fly and others.