Translate the article into English orally. GoPro faces tough competition as consumersspend less on cameras
GoPro faces tough competition as consumersspend less on cameras
With demand from action junkies drying up, GoPro Inc has a mountain to climb as it vies with the iPhone and other sharpshooting smartphones to win over thrifty customers in the mainstream market.
For a company which quickly became synonymous with its helmet- and body-mounted cameras, recent product launches have failed to click with consumers who rely more on smartphones than traditional cameras to make high-resolution video.
GoPro's shares fell 15 percent on Thursday, a day after the company forecast lower-than-expected revenue for the crucial holiday quarter.
GoPro's answer is to increase spending on marketing campaigns, primarily television advertising, from the current quarter through 2016.
For over a year, the company has shunned TV ads, relying instead on the hype generated by GoPro users who upload videos of their exploits on YouTube. Some popular videos, such as "Superman with GoPro", have garnered more than 18 million likes.
"Performance is still good, demand for GoPro is still strong, but admittedly we took our foot off the gas from a marketing perspective in the second and third quarter," Chief Executive Nicholas Woodman said in an interview with CNBC.
Pricing has been an issue: the San Mateo, California-based company slashed $100 off the price of its HERO4 Session camera only two months after its launch in July, citing lower-than-expected demand.
Analysts said customers in the Americas, by far the company's biggest market, appeared unwilling to shell out more money on relatively expensive cameras. The market is also nearing saturation, they said.
Recent advancements in video-shooting capabilities of smartphones, such as Apple Inc's iPhone 6 range, have made competition tougher.
But some analysts said the renewed focus on advertising could help to revitalize sales next year.
"The company will ramp up marketing significantly and immediately, which will weigh on near-term earnings, but should restore some momentum around the product category and the brand heading into 2016," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.
http://www.reuters.com, October 29th, 2015
USEFUL TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS
· to vie – соперничать, бороться, конкурировать
· thriftycustomers – экономный, бережливый, расчетливый покупатель
· mainstream market – основной (массовый) рынок
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· productlaunch – вывод нового товара на рынок
· toclickwith – вызвать отклик;прийтись по вкусу;обрести популярность
· to shun – избегать, сторониться
· to take foot off the gas – сбавитьскорость
· to shell out money – потратитьденьги
· market saturation – насыщение рынка
· to revitalize sales –оживить продажи
· torampup – увеличивать, наращивать, активизировать
· to restore momentum – придатьновыйимпульс
TEXTS FOR TRANSLATION IN WRITING
TEXT 6
Big switch
Increasing competition is shaking up a moribund energy market
NOT so long ago, Britain’s “big six” energy suppliers—SSE, EDF, Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power and British Gas, now owned by Centrica—seemed to have the energy market stitched up. Now, however, all that is changing, and rapidly.
The big six—British and foreign companies (alongside the former state monopoly, British Gas) that bought up the retail energy business after liberalisation in the late 1990s—are being challenged by a wave of small, nimble and ambitious new companies. They have been eating up market share at a remarkable rate. The challengers’ share of the household market has risen from 2% in early 2012 to almost 9% now.
Just in the past year, some of the challengers have made spectacular gains. First Utility, the market leader among the new companies, has more than tripled its number of customers, to 650,000. The smallest of the big six, Scottish Power, still has over 5m customers, but if the challengers go on at this rate, the market share of the big six could have shrivelled by almost 20% within three years.
Most of the challengers’ growth is a consequence of customers switching suppliers. Switching used to be almost entirely between the big six. Now more than half of customers who switch do so from one of the big six to a smaller competitor.
It is not difficult to account for the sudden success of the new companies. They are the beneficiaries of popular anger at the incumbents, particularly over price and customer service. On price, customers saw energy prices rise gradually during the 2000s, causing little concern, but much more steeply thereafter;between 2011 and 2013 there was an increase of over 15% in average household gas and electricity spend. There is still debate as to whether these rises were justified, or whether it was blatant profiteering by the big six, but many customers drew their own conclusions. There was a stampede towards the smaller, and usually cheaper, alternatives. At this point the big six were put on the naughty step by the politicians, with Ed Miliband, in particular, promising that if the Labour Party were to win the next election his government would introduce a price freeze.
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It is not all about money, however. Stephen Fitzpatrick, the head of Ovo Energy, says that his company is as much about offering good service as “fair prices.” The big six have long been castigated by consumer bodies for their dreadful customer service.
The new companies also offer the consumer more choice than before, particularly in terms of renewable energy. Good Energy, for instance, offers 100% green energy. It is consequently a bit more expensive than its peers, but is still growing. The challengers are also taking a lead in applying new technology to measuring consumption;“smart meters” allow people to reduce their bills.
All this is good news, finally, for the beleaguered consumers. They have more choice, and the lower prices that the challengers can offer have forced the big six to reply in kind. Since August they have begun to slash their one-year fixed price tariffs in order to woo customers back.
Indeed, Mr Miliband’s threat of draconian intervention already looks dated. If anything, argues Mr Reid of Lazarus Partnership, a research outfit, the Labour Party leader might have forced prices to remain higher for longer than they might otherwise have been. Companies have been reluctant to reduce prices too much, he says, for fear that they might not be able to raise them again after the election.
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The Economist, November 29th, 2014
USEFUL TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS
· moribund – загнивающий, агонизирующий, переживающийзастой
· nimble – проворный, ловкий
· beneficiary – получатель выгоды
· incumbent– компания, давно существующая на рынке, давний участник рынка
· profiteering– спекуляция, нажива
· stampede– массовый переход
· beleaguered – малообеспеченный, нуждающийся
· to woo – привлечь, добиться расположения
· draconian – безжалостный, суровый
TEXT 7
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