Since launching its first device in July 2009, GoPro has sold nearly 9 million HD cameras, including about 4 million in the last year alone.
Now, as the company prepares to go public Wednesday, some investors are wondering: If GoPro keeps selling millions of cameras, then what other publicly traded companies could get a lift?
For answers, Miroslav Djuric, chief information architect at iFixit, took apart a GoPro Hero3 to find out what makes these digital camcorders tick.
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Djuric says GoPro has packed several high-quality microcomponents into the camera, which has successfully differentiated it from other camera and electronics manufacturers.
At the heart of GoPro's advantage, he says, lies a Sony image sensor.
"Really, what makes them shine is that they were able to take all these components and put them in a very attractive package and be able to give to people in a specialty niche market that really didn't exist previous to them," Djuric said in an interview with CNBC.
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And while Sony supplies key components to GoPro, it also is a GoPro competitor with its own action camera, which costs around $200.
Take apart a GoPro, Djuric said, and you'll also find chips from a variety of vendors, including Texas Instruments and Qualcomm as well a chip from Ambarella, a little known company whose stock is up over 90 percent in just the last 12 months.
But iFixit says it's not the chips that set GoPro apart, it's the lens.
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"They put a lot of work into that lens," Djuric said. "That's truly what makes the GoPro special, because it has such a wide field of view."
Analysts nevertheless expect other camera and electronics manufacturers to go after GoPro in the growing action-adventure camera market.
—By CNBC's Mark Berniker and Josh Lipton