Why I think DJI is in this delayed order Mess.

[Robbyg]

Here's what I think happened in chronological order and it may explain for new people why DJI is having such long delivery times.

1) Early 2016 DJI gets wind that GoPro is working on a small drone that can compete and possibly beat the Phantom series. They know it will be very portable and have a gimbal camera of GoPro quality. DJI immediately starts designing their own portable drone to compete with whatever drone GoPro comes out with. Engineering blindly DJI throws everything into making this new drone as portable as possible and to make sure that it as at least as good as the unknown GoPro Drone.

2) Sept 19 2016 GoPro Shows off the Karma. DJI rushes the Mavic to completion and now has a price point to work with.

3) Sept 27 DJI Shows off a rushed Mavic to the public and succeeds in stealing away a lot of the enthusiasm for the GoPro Karma. Buying a Karma or Mavic now becomes a review waiting game for those of us that are not millionaires. Price point is set to match the Karma. A decision that DJI probably regrets now. If they knew that Karma would fail they could have asked for a couple of hundred more for the Mavic.

4) In Early October DJI sits back working out bugs getting production geared up and figuring out how they will be slugging it out with GoPro for market share. Delivery times by both companies will be slow so DJI has nothing to worry about. If DJI can get a hundred or more Mavics in the right hands with the initial batch due out in November then all they have to do is wait for the reviewers to choose the Mavic as the winner. That will give them time to ramp up production while the public is still hesitant to buy the lower rated Karma.

5) Late October: Disaster strikes for GoPro Karma and DJI finds itself in an unforeseen position.

6) November 8 the Karma is recalled and DJI realizes that a firmware fix cannot save the Karma. DJI is probably regretting putting the Mavic in the hands of the public so soon. Now all eye's and orders are on DJI and since DJI released a hundred or more drones, people expect they can also get one in short order.

7) Mid NOV - Dec 2016 DJI is struggling to go from the small in house production of the Mavic to mass production.

I think this is what happened and it has left DJI in a really bad mess. IMHO as of Jan 2107 whatever preorders DJI thinks they have right now, the actual amount might be half as many!
Most people seem to be making multiple orders with the idea of cancelling the others after the fastest one arrives. Also the better tech in the Mavic damages sales of the Phantom which is a drone that they have in stock and is ready for delivery.

 

[schpenxel]

[new]

 

[Chase R]

Yeah. I think all that is pretty well established already.

 

[Stefan350]

Don't forget, DJI's also released 2 new models after the mavic, Phantom 4 pro and the Inspire 2. Which likely contributed to some of the manufacturing delays.


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[Robbyg]

Yeah. I think all that is pretty well established already.

Yes I know but there are a lot of new guys coming in everyday and some of them are wondering why they cannot order a Mavic and have it in their hands within 2 days. I was also confused when I first thought of buying one, so I figured I would condense what I found into one post.

 

[waykewl]

It isn't so much that DJI is slow filling orders, but DJI was never ready back in Oct 2016 for mass production to begin with. They decided to play the game against GoPro and this is what they got.

 

[PropPilot]

As pi$$3d off as we all were being early order placers and all of the crap that happened associated with it, they launched a game changer and honestly, you are spot on about the price. I would have EASILY paid a couple or more hundred for the unit. This thing is impeccably engineered down to every detail, flies like a dream and is truly portable. Its like everything else bad that happens in life. Eventually the pain goes away and all we remember are the good times. Having over 45 flights on my Mavvie by now, I would say it was worth every bit of aggravation. No way DJI saw this success coming and they acted very clandestine about the whole thing with vague and very rare releases by Adam who ? terribly long queues on the chat to be told that you will basically get it when you get it etc etc but in the end, what else could they say !! Not defending them here at all as I am a noob to drones but I am not a noob to running a company and they hedged on the Karma (why not ??) and won wildly. They wildly exceeded pre orders (again, this baby is a game changer at a tremendous price) and in hindsight, actually got their crap together pretty darn fast......

 

[halley]

This thing is impeccably engineered down to every detail

I gotta say, I think this right here punches a small hole in the #2 line that @Robbyg wrote above. This isn't a napkin-sketch product. DJI must have been working on the Mavic for many months, and props to them for keeping it so quiet for so long. I think Robbyg is right in that DJI had to speed out the gate a little bit, but only a little bit. The implosion of GoPro Karma was really what has done DJI in. You can only reserve additional production capacity so fast, even in China where whole cities comprise assembly-for-hire companies. The smaller detail flaws like final firmware testing, gimbal optics manufacturing tolerances, and battery case cracks... those are clear signs of accelerated production ramp-up. For the most part, though, DJI knocked it out of the park.

And I was really gunning for Karma to win vs the klunky-looking but dominant Phantom platform.

 

[SNew76]

I gotta say, I think this right here punches a small hole in the #2 line that @Robbyg wrote above. This isn't a napkin-sketch product. DJI must have been working on the Mavic for many months, and props to them for keeping it so quiet for so long. I think Robbyg is right in that DJI had to speed out the gate a little bit, but only a little bit. The implosion of GoPro Karma was really what has done DJI in. You can only reserve additional production capacity so fast, even in China where whole cities comprise assembly-for-hire companies. The smaller detail flaws like final firmware testing, gimbal optics manufacturing tolerances, and battery case cracks... those are clear signs of accelerated production ramp-up. For the most part, though, DJI knocked it out of the park.

And I was really gunning for Karma to win vs the klunky-looking but dominant Phantom platform.

I agree I don't think this design was rushed. It doesn't look sloppy and the build quality is great (minor issues aside). Issues are to be expected when you are pumping out mass quantities of any product. I'm excited to see how much better drones can get in the future. Like one YouTuber (irixguy) said "drones are still in the beta stage" consumer drones are still in there infancy and will only be more refined in the future.


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[PropPilot]

It would have taken months alone to write the code for this thing let alone the hardware design. It's a flying computer with far more computing horsepower than the space shuttle. No doubt this was in the skunk works for probably a year. They just pushed the agenda way forward when the Karma came to light. If you think about it, besides a few glitches and slow ramp up, they actually pulled it off. As much as it annoyed me going through the process such as them taking full payment out of the gate at order time etc, would you buy anything else ?? This thing is amazing and I cannot fly it enough ! I fly full size aircraft and get as much of a thrill flying this little thing. Way too much fun for a grand. It will get even better as new apps come out and the firmware/software matures. The new waypoint navigating APP they just released is an example of that. Can't wait until the Android version comes out and it will. The design is a complete sensor packed computing platform that is infinitely upgradeable to add features. Love it. Gets my 'favourite toy of the year' award by a long shot.

 

[SNew76]

It would have taken months alone to write the code for this thing let alone the hardware design. It's a flying computer with far more computing horsepower than the space shuttle. No doubt this was in the skunk works for probably a year. They just pushed the agenda way forward when the Karma came to light. If you think about it, besides a few glitches and slow ramp up, they actually pulled it off. As much as it annoyed me going through the process such as them taking full payment out of the gate at order time etc, would you buy anything else ?? This thing is amazing and I cannot fly it enough ! I fly full size aircraft and get as much of a thrill flying this little thing. Way too much fun for a grand. It will get even better as new apps come out and the firmware/software matures. The new waypoint navigating APP they just released is an example of that. Can't wait until the Android version comes out and it will. The design is a complete sensor packed computing platform that is infinitely upgradeable to add features. Love it. Gets my 'favourite toy of the year' award by a long shot.

Yes they definitely have us hooked. There is nothing else to go buy. If it took six months we would all cry and complain until it came out. The minute I un boxed it all that aggravation melted away. I'm glad that DJI is ahead of the game and I couldn't imagine what anyone else could do to compete with this little technical wonder.


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[PropPilot]

sometimes you need to push the norms and limits to get to the next level. This wasn't like sitting around waiting for the next iPhone. This device enabled a whole new world for many. For me, absolutely nothing wrong with anybody else's drones or DJI's other product line however I would have never purchased a Phantom or anything else. In the old days (probably even now) everything needs a 'killer app' or 'killer feature' to make it pop out. The portability or the Mavic is the driver for me. We travel a lot and I can just imagine the video I am going to get !

 

[Chase R]

Yes I know but there are a lot of new guys coming in everyday and some of them are wondering why they cannot order a Mavic and have it in their hands within 2 days. I was also confused when I first thought of buying one, so I figured I would condense what I found into one post.

Well then you need to bump your thread to the top everyday. Otherwise it will end up in the bottom of the pile with the rest of the threads on the same topic.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

I believe that it also warrants mentioning that initially GoPro & DJI partnered to make a portable drone

 

[HeavensAbove]

Here's what I think happened in chronological order and it may explain for new people why DJI is having such long delivery times.

1) Early 2016 DJI gets wind that GoPro is working on a small drone that can compete and possibly beat the Phantom series. They know it will be very portable and have a gimbal camera of GoPro quality. DJI immediately starts designing their own portable drone to compete with whatever drone GoPro comes out with. Engineering blindly DJI throws everything into making this new drone as portable as possible and to make sure that it as at least as good as the unknown GoPro Drone.

2) Sept 19 2016 GoPro Shows off the Karma. DJI rushes the Mavic to completion and now has a price point to work with.

3) Sept 27 DJI Shows off a rushed Mavic to the public and succeeds in stealing away a lot of the enthusiasm for the GoPro Karma. Buying a Karma or Mavic now becomes a review waiting game for those of us that are not millionaires. Price point is set to match the Karma. A decision that DJI probably regrets now. If they knew that Karma would fail they could have asked for a couple of hundred more for the Mavic.

4) In Early October DJI sits back working out bugs getting production geared up and figuring out how they will be slugging it out with GoPro for market share. Delivery times by both companies will be slow so DJI has nothing to worry about. If DJI can get a hundred or more Mavics in the right hands with the initial batch due out in November then all they have to do is wait for the reviewers to choose the Mavic as the winner. That will give them time to ramp up production while the public is still hesitant to buy the lower rated Karma.

5) Late October: Disaster strikes for GoPro Karma and DJI finds itself in an unforeseen position.

6) November 8 the Karma is recalled and DJI realizes that a firmware fix cannot save the Karma. DJI is probably regretting putting the Mavic in the hands of the public so soon. Now all eye's and orders are on DJI and since DJI released a hundred or more drones, people expect they can also get one in short order.

7) Mid NOV - Dec 2016 DJI is struggling to go from the small in house production of the Mavic to mass production.

I think this is what happened and it has left DJI in a really bad mess. IMHO as of Jan 2107 whatever preorders DJI thinks they have right now, the actual amount might be half as many!
Most people seem to be making multiple orders with the idea of cancelling the others after the fastest one arrives. Also the better tech in the Mavic damages sales of the Phantom which is a drone that they have in stock and is ready for delivery.

I think in 90 years I may have more to worry about than when the drone I ordered will be arriving. I'll be 135 and worried about if my kids will still come to visit me, after all they live on the same wing of the old folks home.


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[dkcamer]

Order placed and yes paid for on January 6th from DJI.com store and no shipping to date Jan 20th now. I don't mind waiting (Learning a lot about the Mavic pro while waiting) but now I see DJI on the main store page has "Mavic Pro Order Now Shipping in one week" Little pissed about that when they have not even shipped existing orders!


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