by steve » Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:43 pm
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there are literally no consumer drone manufacturers left anywhere in the world. Parrot (based in France) and Skydio (based in the US) used to produce consumer drones, but they left the consumer market. GoPro attempted to break into the market but they failed.
Ironically, the rules that the government put in place mandating that government agencies and the military purchase US-made drones has had the unintended effect of all American companies abandoning the consumer market. Why deal with 100,000 consumers and their customer service issues when you can land one government contract that sells a few hundred drones, netting you the same revenue?
The tragedy is, like you say, DJI and other China manufacturers focusing on the consumer market will have thousands and thousands of Americans doing their QA work for them and pushing innovation, while American drone companies get fat on big government contracts.
What's sad is that there are more than
60 drone manufacturers based in the USA chasing the commercial market, but none of them dare touch the consumer market.
There's a reason DJI has dominated more than 70% of the consumer drone market and China dominates 100% of consumer drone manufacturing. Unlike most industries, they didn't need American brands to dump all their manufacturing on them, and they didn't need CCP to put their thumb on the scales to break them into this market—they invented the market and through their market dominance are keeping everyone else out. If the West doesn't wake up, this will happen with every other consumer product.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there are literally no consumer drone manufacturers left anywhere in the world. Parrot (based in France) and Skydio (based in the US) used to produce consumer drones, but they left the consumer market. GoPro attempted to break into the market but they failed.
Ironically, the rules that the government put in place mandating that government agencies and the military purchase US-made drones has had the unintended effect of all American companies abandoning the consumer market. Why deal with 100,000 consumers and their customer service issues when you can land one government contract that sells a few hundred drones, netting you the same revenue?
The tragedy is, like you say, DJI and other China manufacturers focusing on the consumer market will have thousands and thousands of Americans doing their QA work for them and pushing innovation, while American drone companies get fat on big government contracts.
What's sad is that there are more than [url=https://www.modalai.com/pages/us-drone-manufacturers]60 drone manufacturers based in the USA[/url] chasing the commercial market, but none of them dare touch the consumer market.
There's a reason DJI has dominated more than 70% of the consumer drone market and China dominates 100% of consumer drone manufacturing. Unlike most industries, they didn't need American brands to dump all their manufacturing on them, and they didn't need CCP to put their thumb on the scales to break them into this market—they invented the market and through their market dominance are keeping everyone else out. If the West doesn't wake up, this will happen with every other consumer product.