I have to agree to a degree with El Guano. The Chinese know how to do many things extraordinarily well; making money is only one of them. My sense is that while they recognized the value of having a guy like Colin in the camp during the early days had value, they also recognized when those days were over, and dumped him like a bad taste.
Colin did provide them with a valuable service; he was largely responsible for making the Phantom attractive to the hobbyist in North America at a time when they knew, or had a very good feel for the fact that consumer level UAV's that were feature rich while being priced in the "impulse purchase" price range for consumer electronics (under $2000.) were attainable, could be sold at substantial profit if sold in volume, and act as a "gateway" product for more expensive offerings down the road, when wide spread acceptance was realized.
They hit the North American market hard, took a significant percentage of it, sold a ton of machines, and made incremental improvements while doing so. Now, the next phase to kick off is the higher end products, even more feature rich, higher priced, and moving out of the "impulse buy" and into the "good used second car" price range. Something you can expect, demand and GET at those prices is service to back up your investment. That was something Colin didn't have, couldn't provide and subsequently could not remain with DJI as a result of.
DJI has positioned themselves very, very well. They have the lions share of the lower end consumer grade UAV market in North America certainly, and likely other parts of the world as well. The have a solid line of more capable prosumer, commercial and professional level machines already established and selling well. Really, the biggest "fly in the ointment" is the dismal customer service. Mark my words, that will not last.
This industry is set to explode with growth; any company not providing top notch customer service will not be in the business long, and I don't see DJI giving up the ground they've gained in only a couple of years. Customer service is not cheap or easy, but they're a lot easier to tackle with deep pockets and a solid customer base. They have that, they don't want to lose that, and they aren't likely to give it up easily.
They may not have had a lot to say at CES, but it's not the only game in town. Let's see what they come up with in 2014 with regard to customer service, and then product improvements. I'm betting the customer service issues will be greatly improved before the years over, and there will be at least one new, exciting machine to bring to market. If not, we can all watch with morbid fascination as they self distruct in an increasingly competitive industry.