3 ms·
I'd argue DJI is a robotics company, although there are a lot of definitions you could use (you could also say self-driving cars are robots, in which case Cruis
by MegaButts 9y ago
I'd argue DJI is a robotics company, although there are a lot of definitions you could use (you could also say self-driving cars are robots, in which case Cruise was a financial success).
I think your point remains though. Robots really epitomize hype over profits. It's a tough industry where people ignore margins while trying to build impossibly-difficult tech.
- RoboticsAU 9y agoI agree that DJI is a robotics company, and as somebody who has been keeping a close eye on the consumer drone market, it seems they are practically impossible to compete with.
- mmjaa 9y agoDJI is a great consumer robotics company, but they're built on top of a mass amount of experience gained from the DIY world, and this can't be underestimated for its residual effects .. sure, you can buy a DJI consumer product anywhere for a few grand, but for the price of a single DJI you can build yourself a small fleet. And I think that is where they are going to get their competition from, ultimately .. the RCGroups.com crowd.
- fest 9y ago3DR tried to compete with DJI in consumer space but failed. By now, DJI has more than a thousand of employees and at least a decade of experience in this area.
- mmjaa 9y ago.. and there are 10's of thousands of people out there who can just roll their own drones. Doesn't mean DJI isn't going to succeed - just that this is where they'll get their competition from.
- SimonPStevens 9y agoI dunno, I am doing exactly this right now. Rather than by a DJI spark for £500 I'm building my own micro drone. current expenses are at about £100 for the frame, motors, ESC, and flight controller, but I already own a transmitter and receiver that I'm reusing, so add another £100 minimum for that (probably more tbh). Then factor in that so far I've not brought the LiPo batteries or chargers, so add another £50. Then factor in I'm not putting any cameras on it yet, so add another £100 for a fpv camera, 5ghz transmitter and receiver. And the spark does more than that would provide, to match the spark you'd also need to add a second HD camera, and gimbal, so maybe another £100 if you buy low cost parts (I'm not currently seeing any diy parts that can do what the spark does I.e live view and recorded HD video with one camera, hence the two cameras needed). So that's £450 now. And then consider that the spark comes with a smart phone app, GPS, and a bunch of nifty easy to use features that are way ahead of what clean flight/betaflight open source controller software currently does. Perhaps the balances of the economics are different for the more expensive DJI drones, but to me the spark seems very well priced for what it does. I wouldn't be building one myself if I wasn't at least as much interested in the fun of the project than the final result.
- mmjaa 9y agoI've been flying things for 30+ years, and the one thing I have learned in this hobby/field is that the cycle goes like this: 1: Build -> 2: Fly -> 3: Crash (goto 1) DJI are turning this into: 1: Buy -> 2: Fly -> 3: Crash (goto 1) All of these phases are ripe for disruption in my opinion. Maybe you'll find that building is way more fun than flying (crashing) - in which case, you can ship Step #2 off to someone else to deal with .. ;)