Who Are the Major DJI Competitors?

[damoncooper]

My expectations are that my money will go to the company providing the best cost/benefit ratio. Nothing wrong with shopping around when the opportunity arises. DJI isn't the only company interested in collecting $3,000 for a quad and I for one want to understand who else is interested in my money. If that helps provide incentive for other companies to up their offerings or DJI to up theirs, great. The consumer wins in either scenario.

 

[syotr]

As far as ready to fly, there is not much competition yet, but others will soon be knocking on the door.
If you are will to build your own, there are lots of options. With all the flyaways, Phantoms falling out of the sky and poor service, I am looking elsewhere for my next quad. I have completely lost faith in DJI.
For now, I am building a waterproof quad in a Dex shell. It will use the DJI E300 motors and ESC's but the flight controller/OSD will be a Vector by EagleTree.

 

[wkf94025]

I also forgot to add that I fully agree with your statement that communication is cheap and DJI should do a better job of it. Nothing i hate more than not being kept in the loop. A few simple emails or phone calls (even if they dont have an answer) goes along way with people. Often times a honest answer of "we dont know why its doing that but we will look into it" makes people feel better about everything.

What galls me in all this is that a buddy in private equity has seen DJI's books, and they are rolling in it, as one might imagine. So no financial excuse for not hiring the best engineering talent, customer support personnel, and marketing. Amazing they don't get that this plan would be in their own extreme benefit. Nothing short of domination of this explosive space.

Kelly

 

[Elfman12]

How great would it be for every quality component supplier to agree on an open bus protocol, connector/cabling standards, so that best in class building blocks can be more plug-n-play than hard-core DIY. Systems integrators can build upon this foundation with customer service and system know-how being their primary value-add to the ecosystem. I am thinking of the Apple early 80's Super Bowl commercial of Apple vs IBM.

kelly

That standardization would be great for the industry. The only problem with that Apple analogy, though, is that they were the ones moving towards proprietary structure, and IBM became the "clone"/open system.

 

[Meta4]

The new FreeX Skyview looks very much like a near copy of the Phantom and is probably a very good quad.
No integrated camera - just GoPro on a gimbal, affordable and seems to be a real contender.

 

[Doono]

?.......(in case my newest P2 suddenly decides to commit suicide or "pilot error" creates an opportunity

HAH! That's funny.....gotta laugh :lol:

 

[d4ddyo]

You will see a lot of stuff this xmas and going into next xmas.

as for me.. i'm working on making scratch builds now for friends and family. trying to keep up with the technology. i still like my phantom for vacation/Ap (still too big and looking for a more portable alternative)

This is the equivalent of Moore's Law (which is no longer in effect with computers). I'm going to keep my phantom but it has opened a whole new world. The hobby is going to get more affordable especially with so many Chinese players in the game.

I think the mid point of a $1200 Vision plus is still too expensive. The mid point needs to be the equivalent of an entry level multi rotor needs to be half that with all vision plus features.

There are some that are getting close but not quite.

 

[damoncooper]

Food for thought: the lower the barrier to entry the more incidents will be in the press, and the more regulation we will see enacted. Not sure where this ends but if in 5 years it's $199 for today's $3,000-4,000 quad equivalent, it'll be a very different landscape.

Of course, lawsuits may have thinned the herd of suppliers at that point and "suicide" and misbehaving quads maybe a thing of the past.

 

[d4ddyo]

Food for thought: the lower the barrier to entry the more incidents will be in the press, and the more regulation we will see enacted. Not sure where this ends but if in 5 years it's $199 for today's $3,000-4,000 quad equivalent, it'll be a very different landscape.

Of course, lawsuits may have thinned the heard of suppliers at that point and "suicide" and misbehaving quads maybe a thing of the past.

Yep. It will get there. You are exactly right. Now the kids will have their hands on this stuff. Kids will not have toy versions but have high quality professional and hobby versions rtf at accessible pricing.

Legislation will be nuts then.

Think about it. This year Hubsan came out with a fpv mini 107D. The 107 cost 40 bucks. With camera and fpv it's at $200. That not a toy. It can easily fly out of LOS! Fpv sucks but still. lol

How about rc logger that can carry a gopro at $150 bucks.

 

[lvzx14]

Food for thought: the lower the barrier to entry the more incidents will be in the press, and the more regulation we will see enacted. Not sure where this ends but if in 5 years it's $199 for today's $3,000-4,000 quad equivalent, it'll be a very different landscape.

Of course, lawsuits may have thinned the heard of suppliers at that point and "suicide" and misbehaving quads maybe a thing of the past.

Yep. It will get there. You are exactly right. Now the kids will have their hands on this stuff. Kids will not have toy versions but have high quality professional and hobby versions rtf at accessible pricing.

Legislation will be nuts then.

Think about it. This year Hubsan came out with a fpv mini 107D. The 107 cost 40 bucks. With camera and fpv it's at $200. That not a toy. It can easily fly out of LOS! Fpv sucks but still. lol

How about rc logger that can carry a gopro at $150 bucks.

I'd still classify those as "toy" grade IMHO but they still serve a purpose which is great. I think as the technology and hobby advances they will indeed get cheaper but I don't think it will get that low for a long long long long time. Esp one that's comparable to a 3k+ today.

Everybody and theyre grandmother wants to get into AP work but its starting to shift to smaller FPV multirotor's for acro/sport flying which is bar none the most fun you can have. They just don't really offer "quality" setup's that are ARF/RTF as you have to build one yourself if you want that. But seeing as TBS is coming with one soon I think that is starting to change I can't wait to place my order.

 

[Flying Cephlopod]

?.......(in case my newest P2 suddenly decides to commit suicide or "pilot error" creates an opportunity

HAH! That's funny.....gotta laugh :lol:

This is the undocumented "kamikaze" feature.

 

[varmint]

I think Fisher Price would give them a run for their money at the moment....

If Fisher Price supports their products, then I'd rather fly the Buzz Lightyear hex than the next DJI product.

 

[damoncooper]

Any word on the Walkera Tali H500 yet?

I'm interested in any news for sure.

 

[Khudson7]

Hey, I just heard that Colin Guinn is now over with 3D Robotics. Wonder if we will start seeing youtube videos of their products.

 

[twodips]

I find it almost laughable that some people expect emerging tech to be flawless right out of the box. Quads to consumers is a VERY new market and with any new market with new tech you have to go into it knowing that YOU are going to have to sort out alot of the bugs on your own. Its a tinkerers game. I bought into 3d printers a couple years back and it was the exact same way. VERY high buy in price....only marginally works right out of the box...tinkering with settings to get a good usable outcome...groups of us that bought in early banding together to solve problems only to have our ideas and fixes taken and used on the next gen printers. Its the same with quads right now. Each company is trying to emerge as the top in this market so they are devoting more time to new features and models than to making the current ones ROCK SOLID. Give the quad market 5 years and you will unbox one with a perfect working gimbal and HD cam for $200 (or less) and the thing will fly for an hour and have GPS way points and never have an issue. For the mean time though remember we are in an infant market with ever changing tech....unfortunately the manufacturers are not our saviors we are on our own.

Just like computers,cars,software etc. I call this the Microsoft effect. When PC's first became all the rage and Microsoft was well on it's way to being a leader (Windows 95) they found out that they could barf out a product and let the users pay to be the beta testers/debuggers. :shock: :x
It worked very well for the companies! Now it's become common place/accepted that if you want something new you have to put up with and figure out the bugs for the company making it and they don't have to pay salaries to beta teams. :roll:

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Hey, I just heard that Colin Guinn is now over with 3D Robotics. Wonder if we will start seeing youtube videos of their products.

Wow 3d robotics? I hope he changes every single one of their products because they are about 2 years behind everyone else.

 

[BigTulsa]

Hey, I just heard that Colin Guinn is now over with 3D Robotics. Wonder if we will start seeing youtube videos of their products.

Wow 3d robotics? I hope he changes every single one of their products because they are about 2 years behind everyone else.

The IRIS looks to be a direct competitor for the Phantom series. IMO.

http://3drobotics.com/iris/

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

7 MIN FLIGHT TIME???????

 

[droneuser1]

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[ianwood]

You revive a year old thread...
spam it with a shameless promotion for a phantom knockoff...
as your first post to this forum.

Wow.

EDIT: It's called the Smargle 1? That's, uhhh, a great name. Rolls right off the tongue. Right.