The future of DJI in the USA

[Torque]

I had high hopes for 3DR. I thought they'd actually give DJI some stiff competition. What a disappointing failure. I have an Iris and a Solo setting on my shelf.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I'm a very solid libertarian-ish, free market dude.

Drone technology and supply is one of the very few areas I would support a large public investment in private domestic industry for R&D and competing in global markets.

DJI and the Chinese government own this space.

Seeing how effectively Ukraine is using small drones is an eye-opener.

We are missing the boat right now in the US, and I think this "boat" is going to turn out to be as important and impactful as the computing boat the US was driving.

To national security, economic independence, standard of living, and more.

Taking a side road in the thread regarding DJI products and the Ukraine business ... DJI sold AEROSCOPE to both Russia AND the Ukraine and then Ukrainian network was mysteriously switched off not long after.

 

[aaronfedor]

All the grandstanding and suspicion of DJI will end after all DJI is simply a Chinese company and they have no choice but to do what that government tells them to do. They will regain the foothold eventually because they are so consumer friendly I disagree about the no American drones statement. There are many U.S. companies producing the same quality if not superior Drones ,Some of them are used much more than their DJI counterparts BUT these companies have no way to capture the Market Away Because DJI pays retailers handsomely to prominently display their Drones over any others. DJI Makes great Products but they have MANY things that are Killing them on the commercial and entertainment Side. They will work on those of course but DJI will stay on top in the recreational Drone market in my opininion.

 

[aaronfedor]

What US company makes better Drones than DJI ?????

 

[Droning on and on...]

I agree with you 99% Except for- Actually People purchase shiny things that they are force-fed Most people bought it cause They saw it at Best buy not because where it was made or even how well its made really,Even though DJI Drones are high quality and the people who Run how the drones are Displayed over at Best Buy are DJI I can assure you.

I really oppose this sort of thinking, and believe it's not even close to representative of real people.

@Cafguy, does this describe you? It doesn't describe me. Or anyone I see posting on these forums.

People are not the dumba**e* that are so often portrayed. Most people don't part with $1,000 without some thought about it – most can't afford to make such careless, whimsical purchase decisions.

DJI dominates the drone industry for exactly the reason @Meta4 said: They provide a product that meets and usually exceeds what the customer is looking for.

No one has ever "forced" me to buy anything. Including DJI. The same illogic is used to claim DJI "forces" people to buy drones missing features they want, and having features they don't want. What idiocy.

By that thinking DJI is forcing me not to buy the perfect drone with exactly my list of desired features because they won't make it.

Stupid.

 

[Cafguy]

I hope you feel this a debate and nothing argumentative because I am interested and I could learn too BUT
DJI isn't forcing you to buy a drone-They are just limiting your selection by paying retailers to either put the competition in the back or not to sell them altogether. I love my DJI Drone and I would buy another and any drone maker with a brian and money would squeeze their competition so I don't fault them for it .its just the way it worked out. Thanks to their Countries Massive Clout with all American Retailers.
It is a shame BUT indeed we as a society buy what we are fed ( Hold on I gotta answer my iPhone 14) and we are fed those products by the Strongest on the block. No one approached DJI and said " Hey create and market to me a Quad with an HD Camera." They built it - We saw it- They made money.
Example.
If my nieghbor down the street decides to build a video game system and he ends up making the best thing ever, He has ZERO chance of getting that system into stores unless he sells that idea to Microsoft or Playstation. Because after-all they are the ones who decide what's gets displayed at Walmart NOT Walmart.

 

[mavic3usa]

Sorry one more video. If you ever find yourself in China, personally I think it's worthwhile to see if you can get into one of these factories (any electronics factory) for a tour; very eye-opening and quite interesting. Usually people don't have a lot of time and it's not always possible but if you can manage.....

 

[Droning on and on...]

I hope you feel this a debate and nothing argumentative because I am interested and I could learn too BUT
DJI isn't forcing you to buy a drone-They are just limiting your selection by paying retailers to either put the competition in the back or not to sell them altogether.

Do you have evidence of this? I say they're not engaging in sleazy business practices like this. They don't have to.

I love my DJI Drone and I would buy another and any drone maker with a brian and money would squeeze their competition so I don't fault them for it .its just the way it worked out. Thanks to their Countries Massive Clout with all American Retailers.

Again, evidence?

Their dominance of the market is more than enough for retailers to give preferential treat to DJI products because it's good for their business, not because DJI has asked them to (or worse coerced them in some way).

A retailer is going to devote a lot more inventory and display space to DJI, for example, because that's what their customers are coming through the door looking for. If you're out of stock, they ain't coming back. they're going somewhere else where a smarter retailer has them in stock.

It is a shame BUT indeed we as a society buy what we are fed ( Hold on I gotta answer my iPhone 14) and we are fed those products by the Strongest on the block.

Maybe you, not me. There's far more being pushed my way that I don’t buy than I do. I see advertising all the time for stuff I have no interest in.

Manufacturers have almost no ability to "feed" me any product. I buy something if I need or want it, and I feel it's value to me is at least as much as the value I'm handing over in money.

I think most people are pretty much the same way.

 

[Starz]

I’m thinking of adding another member to my ignore list.

 

[Solsearcher]

I hope you feel this a debate and nothing argumentative because I am interested and I could learn too BUT
DJI isn't forcing you to buy a drone-They are just limiting your selection by paying retailers to either put the competition in the back or not to sell them altogether. I love my DJI Drone and I would buy another and any drone maker with a brian and money would squeeze their competition so I don't fault them for it .its just the way it worked out. Thanks to their Countries Massive Clout with all American Retailers.
It is a shame BUT indeed we as a society buy what we are fed ( Hold on I gotta answer my iPhone 14) and we are fed those products by the Strongest on the block. No one approached DJI and said " Hey create and market to me a Quad with an HD Camera." They built it - We saw it- They made money.
Example.
If my nieghbor down the street decides to build a video game system and he ends up making the best thing ever, He has ZERO chance of getting that system into stores unless he sells that idea to Microsoft or Playstation. Because after-all they are the ones who decide what's gets displayed at Walmart NOT Walmart.

I'm having trouble understanding if you're just stubborn, or just disillusioned. Perhaps a combination of both. I'm not saying this to be insulting, rather more of a commentary/observation. You have ideas and thoughts and share them here as though they are facts. They are not. They are what you "think" is reality, or perhaps what you believe to be true. Walmart absolutely decides what goes on their shelves, no one else does! Most product manufacturers with enough margin built into their products would kill to have them on Walmart shelves. But the caveat here is "with enough margin", because Walmart beats up ALL distributors and manufacturers on their pricing and many distributors and manufacturers just can't afford to sell to Walmart at the prices Walmart dictates. Read that again..."at the prices WALMART DICTATES".

Does marketing influence us? Absolutely! But "influence" is a far cry from making any of us decide whether we want a DJI drone, or some other of "the many US drone manufacturers" you think exist.

Droning on and on is exactly correct...retailers stock their shelves with what they believe will sell. Sure, sometimes new products have some trouble getting a foot in the door, but the moment a retailer knows what is selling, it's game on.

Lastly, your example of video games with MS and PlayStation is yet another poor example. First, it's Sony, not PlayStation. PlayStation is just a Sony product. Secondly, while MS (16 billion $ - USA) and Sony (28 billion $ - Japan) are the top two biggest video game companies, there are also TenCent Holdings (14 billion $ - China), Nintendo (almost 14 billion $ - Japan), Activision / Blizzard almost 8 billion $ - USA), Electronic Arts (7 billion $ - USA), Epic Games (6 billion $ - USA) and the list goes on....

 

[Dangerly]

Hey guys, I think this thread is getting a little hot. Could we cool it off a bit maybe?

 

[Solsearcher]

Hey guys, I think this thread is getting a little hot. Could we cool it off a bit maybe?

I hardly think that disagreeing with someone and telling them why, is "getting a little hot"....but maybe that's just me?

 

[anotherlab]

BUT DJI isn't forcing you to buy a drone-They are just limiting your selection by paying retailers to either put the competition in the back or not to sell them altogether.

Do you have any proof of that? DJI has no need to pay retailers for preferential treatment. They have competed on price and functionality

It is a shame BUT indeed we as a society buy what we are fed

What does that even mean? We make the choice to spend the money on items that provide value. It doesn't matter if the company is Chinese-owned or not, if the drones were not reliable no one would buy them. GoPro took a serious hit to their reputation with the Karma losing power and dropping out of the sky.

If my nieghbor down the street decides to build a video game system and he ends up making the best thing ever, He has ZERO chance of getting that system into stores unless he sells that idea to Microsoft or Playstation. Because after-all they are the ones who decide what's gets displayed at Walmart NOT Walmart.

That's an apples-to-oranges comparison. You can't compare the launch of a video game console system with a device like a drone. You have to come up with an entire ecosystem (console, developer APIs, marketing, getting studios to write games, etc). It costs a lot of money for a game studio to write a new game or port an existing one to a new platform. Big players in that space failed (Atari, Sega, 3DO).

If another company came out with a drone that worked reasonably well as a Mavic and had some killer features, it would sell. It's a mature market and they would need deep pockets to ramp up a production line to be able to sell near the same price point as DJI. Sony is trying to do that on the high end with the AirPeak and if they throw enough resources at it, it could do well. Just not in the current incarnation.

 

[3rdof5]

Just to chime in from Canada. Yes I have heard of the paranoia about chinese made drones, specifically DJI, having imbedded programming to allow the Chinese to spy on users. How true that is remains to be proven. That being said, I am a long time member in this forum and there certainly seems to be no drop in members from the USA or drop in new DJI aircraft purchases by our American members. I think the market speaks quite clearly about DJI'S future, anywhere! Just my 2 cents.

 

[mavic3usa]

Cafguy sounds like he's old school where much of what he says actually happened...in another time and another place...in the past. DJI doesn't pay to position their product but you just can't put your drone on the corner aisle at Best Buy under glass and on the front page of their flyer during drone week or on their crowded website banner during BF without some $incentive$. Of course there are marketing dollars being allocated so it's not your traditional we can simply pay money to get our promoted because BBY won't accept it from a smaller brand. Today you probably have to "earn" your way to the top. If BBY orders 100,000 kits and pays for them and sends a check to DJI, it comes with strings attached. BBY knows the roadmap. They probably want the first shipment when the new kit RCPro2 comes out. They also probably want the FPV2 first. During the BF network TV commercial when BestBuy shows Santa holding a iPhone 15 AND a drone, it's gotta be the Mini 4 Pro....for example and DJI can pay for that. Autel would love to be able to pay for that...but they cannot. BBY needs those drones to sell and if they don't.....they can probably send them back to DJI.

 

[baddog]

My Issue with dji on the commercial side, (Well 1 of them) Is the refusal to make them even more open to repair or customization to the customers needs, For Example: Lets say you are a drone Pilot and you and your Video operator go out to shoot a scene on a set, Now that shoot is scheduled and very expensive - on your last pre-flight you burn a motor. My competitors drone requires me to remove 3 screws and a connector and replace - and I'm Back in the Air ( 5min) Something that is not possible with a DJI. For Dji drones you need a Backup Drone, and the trucks already full. They will correct this one day but to do that they will have to do things they are not willing to do.

You must have a very small truck.

I always have a backup drone, sometimes 3, chairs, canopy, tables, cooler, etc... Matrice 300, Matrice 30T, Mavic 3M, D-RTK 2 Mobile Station, and CheckPoint targets, all in a Ford Explorer. I never do any repairs in the field, except for a prop change, usually, there is not enough time for those repairs in the field, especially on movie sets or weddings.

But, I do not know your specific situation so, I will stop here.

 

[jmaganaski]

My Issue with dji on the commercial side, (Well 1 of them) Is the refusal to make them even more open to repair or customization to the customers needs, For Example: Lets say you are a drone Pilot and you and your Video operator go out to shoot a scene on a set, Now that shoot is scheduled and very expensive - on your last pre-flight you burn a motor. My competitors drone requires me to remove 3 screws and a connector and replace - and I'm Back in the Air ( 5min) Something that is not possible with a DJI. For Dji drones you need a Backup Drone, and the trucks already full. They will correct this one day but to do that they will have to do things they are not willing to do.

Any 107 pilot that works in film production that chooses to leave their equipment on a grip truck shouldn’t be working in that industry.

 

[jmaganaski]

My Issue with dji on the commercial side, (Well 1 of them) Is the refusal to make them even more open to repair or customization to the customers needs, For Example: Lets say you are a drone Pilot and you and your Video operator go out to shoot a scene on a set, Now that shoot is scheduled and very expensive - on your last pre-flight you burn a motor. My competitors drone requires me to remove 3 screws and a connector and replace - and I'm Back in the Air ( 5min) Something that is not possible with a DJI. For Dji drones you need a Backup Drone, and the trucks already full. They will correct this one day but to do that they will have to do things they are not willing to do.

Any 107 pilot that works in film production that chooses to leave their equipment on a grip or camera truck shouldn’t be working in that industry.

 

[netfolks2000]

There are so many that the first two brands you mentioned are foreign companies that make drones in China, the last two are US companies that produce specialised commercial drones way too expensive for the consumer market.
The other company has been shown to actively lobby to encourage the paranoia surrounding DJI.

If there really were so many US companies making competitive drones, we'd all know about them and DJI wouldn't have >70% market share.

I agree. EVERY review I read shows DJI ahead, always better. And they have inventory.

 

[jmaganaski]

I'll bite...who are these "many" US companies, please?

One of them is Skydio. I’m actually working with one of their birds on a project.