How DJI Became Market Leader; a Hypothesis

[PatR]

Did DJI Bamboozle You Too?

Don’t just think I am beating up on DJI; they call it the news, and it is our job to keep tabs on the industry and ecosystem. As always, DJI makes a great product at a fantastic price point, and in…

www.suasnews.com

 

[Phaedrus]

First in. Simple as that. The same way the Dodge mini-van dominated for years. At least most of DJI stuff is fairly decent. And the helping hand from the State didn't hurt either. Too bad their nanny state mindset takes away from a lot of what makes them attractive.

But Patrick is always a fun read.

 

[PatR]

Indeed. But a word of advice; don’t buy a Dodge minivan unless you adore constant repairs and the costs associated with them.

One of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made was letting her buy the car of her choice without any interference on my part.

 

[Dougcjohn]

Indeed. But a word of advice; don’t buy a Dodge minivan unless you adore constant repairs and the costs associated with them.

One of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made was letting her buy the car of her choice without any interference on my part.

A sad day... YOU owned a MiniVan... urgh, the visual. Don't tell me it had the wood tape on sides too! My Brother had one, similar circumstances... it was a joyful day when he traded!

 

[PatR]

No fake wood, single color paint. She bought it to enable easy transport of Great Danes.

From another perspective, I’ve owned several vans in my time, all older full size Dodge A100’s during the 35 years or so I surfed the California and Baja coastline. Very convenient for the purpose and the A100 had enough dog house space to put a larger engine in. Amazing how much extra pep a 360 with a cam, quad, and headers has over a 318. Sadly, I lost the last one after a head on with a 260Z when the driver decided to show his girlfriend how fast it could go around curves. Either the driver or the car lacked the ability to stay on their side of the road doing 75 on a 25mph curve. Van lost the front axle and engine when the Z went under.

As for wood sides, if I had ever found a “Woody” I could have, in addition to everything else I had going on, afforded to restore, maintain, and garage, I would have been all over it[emoji16]

 

[Phaedrus]

Indeed. But a word of advice; don’t buy a Dodge minivan unless you adore constant repairs and the costs associated with them.

One of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made was letting her buy the car of her choice without any interference on my part.

I never said Doge quality was the reason for their dominance. But First In is always a huge advantage.
DJI is in an interesting place right now. No new sUAS products lately, Phantom line all but extinct (yes, I know the RTK), apparently the 600 is going away, and the Inspire is growing long in the tooth.

But they have come out with 2 consumer handheld cameras/gimbals and some bizarre robot vehicle.

Maybe that $100 million theft hurt them more than they are willing to admit.

 

[PatR]

Not likely as that money was likely rolled in to the selling price of the finished products. The customers footed the bill. More likely they lost profit they believe they should have had.

Interestingly, I saw a similar type of fraud in the military UAV world, especially with “cost plus” contracts. With one, just about anything people wanted got bought and billed under generic names. I remember seeing billings for Starbucks ground coffee marked up 500%., and billings for shipping RC foamies overseas.

With another, a theater lead needing something for a site would always buy three of whatever it was. One for the site, one for the company, and one that got shipped to his home. He got away with it until questions were raised over the location of a third office trailer. Deployers were given a “no limit” company credit card to purchase things they would need overseas and book travel. Some of them were far less than honest with their purchases.

I’m pretty sure the solution ended up costing more than the problem as the change in purchasing methods made everyone in the company submit purchase requests to a multiple managerial levels for approval, who in turn submitted PR’s to a new purchasing department, where that department made contact with the suppliers to establish product suitability and cost before placing an order, several weeks after a purchase request had been submitted. A lot of project time was lost due to process inefficiencies.

Employee travel booking was taken from the employee, who usually booked early, and given to a new travel department that usually booked at the last possible second. The cost of an international business class ticket would jump from a few thousand $$ to $18-$20k because of last minute booking. Multiply that by several hundred business travelers making trips several times a year.

But all that followed approved government cost control policies so that made it ok....

 

[Dougcjohn]

No fake wood, single color paint. She bought it to enable easy transport of Great Danes.

From another perspective, I’ve owned several vans in my time, all older full size Dodge A100’s during the 35 years or so I surfed the California and Baja coastline. Very convenient for the purpose and the A100 had enough dog house space to put a larger engine in. Amazing how much extra pep a 360 with a cam, quad, and headers has over a 318. Sadly, I lost the last one after a head on with a 260Z when the driver decided to show his girlfriend how fast it could go around curves. Either the driver or the car lacked the ability to stay on their side of the road doing 75 on a 25mph curve. Van lost the front axle and engine when the Z went under.

As for wood sides, if I had ever found a “Woody” I could have, in addition to everything else I had going on, afforded to restore, maintain, and garage, I would have been all over it[emoji16]

I’d agree... find a “Woody” and it’d be a sweet ride!
To bad on the modified A100... 360 was a nice torquing mill and the loss of a 240Z. Incidentally, that had to be Driver... I had several Z’s and the could take 90 square intersection at 40... turns were no problem... their biggest threat was RUST! With a few Chevy buddies, we tucked a 302 Mouse in a 240Z, Borg 5sp, alum heads... weight wasn’t much different... subframe couldn’t endure the torque.... jap pop cans twist.

Danes & Cats... wasn’t there a movie similar! Who ruled the group... biggest female cat?

I’ll skate around the DJI theories... I’ve expressed that enough in past.

 

[PatR]

Actually, it was the smallest female cat. All my cats started out feral and got domesticated after capture as wild kittens. Because of that they all have superb survival instincts and capable of tremendous footwork. Watch out for the polydactyl. Waaay too many claws[emoji3517]

 

[Dougcjohn]

They share many traits & similarities to the 2 legged feline version as well... even the claws!

 

[PatR]

Indeed!

 

[PatR]

I don’t believe DJI was the first. Second or third but not first. Mikrokopter and Ardu were there first IIRC.

 

[Phaedrus]

I don’t believe DJI was the first. Second or third but not first. Mikrokopter and Ardu were there first IIRC.

First mass market. True, other smaller players were around, but DJI built the market.

 

[LinsonW]

Could you please comment on Mavic mini? And the opportunity other drone companies on consumer products? @PatR @Phaedrus

 

[Dougcjohn]

@PatR & @Phaedrus will surely contribute...

My 2 Cents:
The Mavic Mini released today in pre-order status... if pre-sales are any indication, they have a new hot item in a new niche market: Ultra Light Ultra Compact. It's the first "Retail" drone under the 250g category that allows it to not be FAA Registered and designed with features normally only found on larger drones: Accurate GPS system, 3 axis Gimbal, Photography useable spec'ed camera, an array of autonomous flight options, able to use a large array of 3rd party apps, exceptional range (up to 4Km), both 2.4 & 5.8Ghz Freq, and reasonable performance & flight duration.

Although not required to register (you may register if desired), the flight requirements pretty much remain consistent to registered aircraft that requires pilot continue to follow flight requirements & rules.

As indicated in the B&H Photo DJI Mavic Mini page: "might just be the perfect bridge between the professional and toy drone market"

To the consumer market, it's setting a new standard. Ultra Compact Light craft with performance & photographic specs reserved for larger drones 1-2 years ago. The Price when considering it's including the current tariffs, is still easily reachable and acceptable by a large percentage of the consumer potential Buyers.

How it affects the Other Drone companies? If they manufacture larger drones, or speciality drones most likely zero effect. If they manufacture low cost drones, then the Mavic Mini will be a strong competitor. Currently there aren't any other small low cost drones with the features or performance of the Mavic Mini.
If you're needing a MFT camera platform, higher grade photography platform, a survey platform, cinema, SAR, etc.. the Mavic Mini won't replace those platforms. If wanting a small unit for the bike trail, lug on a family outing, or to experiment with intro quality before the bigger purchase the Mavic Mini might appeal.

Although in my opinion, their biggest competing "drones" are their own DJI smaller models: Tello, Spark & Mavic Air. The smaller Yuneec models would be threatened too.

To other companies, it signals a small platform can contain higher end specs at a low cost. To compete they'd need to exceed on specification within the same price range below $500. That may be extremely difficult to several companies.

Another recent release; the Skydio 2 is an extremely technological advanced USA manufactured drone that is also marketed at low price in comparison to it's closest competition... if this new category actually has competition with current models. I think the Skydio 2 threatens the drone market competition more than the Mavic Mini.

Like the popularity of the Spark, the Mavic Mini will most likely be an extremely popular and high volume sales model. It'll probably exceed previous models easily. It'll appeal to a wide audience from beginner to Pro.
The below 250g and no requirement to register, although doesn't really effect legal flying requirements will probably increase sales in some fashion as it will be marketed as the 1st Unregistered "full feature" drone.
The company DJI have "created" a new market niche, will advertise & take advantage of it and most likely own the new ultra light ultra compact market as the only product.

 

[PatR]

Short version for the Mavic Mini is that it will be quite successful.

Long version is there are several reasons it will be successful even if it performs badly. One reason is because it's a DJI product and DJI already has 75%+ of the consumer market. DJI also has a strong advertising and packaging presence that other manufacturers don't. People won't buy something they don't know about so if there's little or no advertising there's no way for people to know of something. DJI makes it a point to have their models reviewed by any relative publishing entity they can get a new model out to. Photography blogs, magazines, hobby blogs, general media, Camera/lens social media, numerous YouTube reviewers, and many others. DJI also maintains a strong presence in big box stores, obtaining prominent, highly visible display space on the shelves. They make sure the store clerks have easy to deliver information available for walk through customers that express an interest in DJI products.

Another reason is the controller. DJI learned a lesson from Yuneec: operators strongly desire a view screen at the controller that is not associated will a cell phone or tablet. Yuneec elected to eliminate the view screen for smaller models following the Chroma. Perhaps you are familiar with the expression "shoot yourself in the foot". That's exactly why Yuneec did when they dropped the controller view screen in favor of cell phones. Note that DJI's model sales have picked up appreciably for models that now incorporate a controller camera view. It's a pretty sure bet the buyer will be able to see what the camera sees every time they turn on the controller and aircraft. There's no worry their phone, tablet, and viewing accessory firmware might be incompatible with the flight system's Wifi carrier.

Another reason for Mavic Mini success will be third party Apps. Anything that helps the operator get things done or simplify the flight process is highly desirable. DJI already has a large number of third prty apps to assist their customers in flight and flight planning, with most of them functioning across all their model variants. With the exception of Tuna's UAV Toolbox, applicable only to the Typhoon H 480, Yuneec and Autel have essentially none, while Parrot is actively developing and releasing apps to their customers.

Personally, I don't think the Mavic Mini's sub 250 gram weight will be as much of a selling point as the dimensional characteristics. The weight will make people that don't like the registration concept happy but those will be outnumbered by the people interested in a pocket sized drone. The one thing that will hold people back from purchasing one is flight restriction software, but that deterrent is present in every system that possesses artificial flight restrictions. Price will also have an impact, but unless the price is extremely low that won't be a big factor. A low price will cause people to flock to a product, even if the product is not very good.

Last, but certainly not least, is DJI has for several years been constantly improving their customer service department. They saw the benefits of a strong customer service department some years back with the examples set by 3DR and Yuneec, and since then have invested considerable resources in improving this area of business. Unfortunately 3DR closed up and Yuneec has fallen on their sword with customer service. Any company that fails to understand their customer service department is a business generator will consistently lose business to companies that maintain a strog customer service presence. If people cannot access companies to obtain repairs or assistance they will quickly migrate to companies and products where such is quickly provided.

I'll provide my views on opportunity for other consumer manufacturers in a separate post.

 

[Dougcjohn]

Short version for the Mavic Mini is that it will be quite successful.

Long version is there are several reasons it will be successful even if it performs badly. One reason is because it's a DJI product and DJI already has 75%+ of the consumer market. DJI also has a strong advertising and packaging presence that other manufacturers don't. People won't buy something they don't know about so if there's little or no advertising there's no way for people to know of something. DJI makes it a point to have their models reviewed by any relative publishing entity they can get a new model out to. Photography blogs, magazines, hobby blogs, general media, Camera/lens social media, numerous YouTube reviewers, and many others. DJI also maintains a strong presence in big box stores, obtaining prominent, highly visible display space on the shelves. They make sure the store clerks have easy to deliver information available for walk through customers that express an interest in DJI products.

Another reason is the controller. DJI learned a lesson from Yuneec: operators strongly desire a view screen at the controller that is not associated will a cell phone or tablet. Yuneec elected to eliminate the view screen for smaller models following the Chroma. Perhaps you are familiar with the expression "shoot yourself in the foot". That's exactly why Yuneec did when they dropped the controller view screen in favor of cell phones. Note that DJI's model sales have picked up appreciably for models that now incorporate a controller camera view. It's a pretty sure bet the buyer will be able to see what the camera sees every time they turn on the controller and aircraft. There's no worry their phone, tablet, and viewing accessory firmware might be incompatible with the flight system's Wifi carrier.

Another reason for Mavic Mini success will be third party Apps. Anything that helps the operator get things done or simplify the flight process is highly desirable. DJI already has a large number of third prty apps to assist their customers in flight and flight planning, with most of them functioning across all their model variants. With the exception of Tuna's UAV Toolbox, applicable only to the Typhoon H 480, Yuneec and Autel have essentially none, while Parrot is actively developing and releasing apps to their customers.

Personally, I don't think the Mavic Mini's sub 250 gram weight will be as much of a selling point as the dimensional characteristics. The weight will make people that don't like the registration concept happy but those will be outnumbered by the people interested in a pocket sized drone. The one thing that will hold people back from purchasing one is flight restriction software, but that deterrent is present in every system that possesses artificial flight restrictions. Price will also have an impact, but unless the price is extremely low that won't be a big factor. A low price will cause people to flock to a product, even if the product is not very good.

Last, but certainly not least, is DJI has for several years been constantly improving their customer service department. They saw the benefits of a strong customer service department some years back with the examples set by 3DR and Yuneec, and since then have invested considerable resources in improving this area of business. Unfortunately 3DR closed up and Yuneec has fallen on their sword with customer service. Any company that fails to understand their customer service department is a business generator will consistently lose business to companies that maintain a strog customer service presence. If people cannot access companies to obtain repairs or assistance they will quickly migrate to companies and products where such is quickly provided.

I'll provide my views on opportunity for other consumer manufacturers in a separate post.

Great points...althought the controller with screen isn't applicable. The RC is basically the RC from the Mavic Air and requires a screen: phone or tablet. Unlike the Spark, the standard unit didn't include the RC controller... they learned that was a mistake and offer the Mavic Mini standard package with the controller.

On the subject of Screen controller. DJI did introduce a Controller with screen for the Mavic 2 series. It's had mixed results, sales aren't as they hoped. I personally am one that has no interest... limited to a small screen and not removable when wanting to review a mission's flight capture.

 

[PatR]

With you all the way with small screens. Using a cell phone is a non starter. Even the screen on a ST-16 was a step down in size from what I used prior to the release of the Q500/Chroma/Typhoon series with the ST-10. Prior to that I employed monitors or one type or another.

I obtained a perception the Mavic Mini incorporated a screen in the controller when doing a quick read of the DJI advertising. Either the advertising was visually deceptive or I was in error.

 

[Dougcjohn]

With you all the way with small screens. Using a cell phone is a non starter. Even the screen on a ST-16 was a step down in size from what I used prior to the release of the Typhoon series.

I obtained a perception the Mavic Mini incorporated a screen in the controller when doing a quick read of the DJI advertising. Either the advertising was visually deceptive or I was in error.

Well, we know... It can't be the later... so it must be advertising, that they corrected in last few minutes!

Ya, iPad Pro 10, Samsung Tab S4 are my Go To... plus I want to pull it off, review the videos & photo grid capture without holding the controller.

 

[Dougcjohn]

As example... I have absolutely NO need for the little guy... but I have already Pre-Ordered via Adorama!
To me... the Tello was just a fun entertaining bird with big limitations outside and no functional camera.
The Mavic Mini merges the Spark & Tello in an improved package... Compact, Cute and functional!
It'll be an entertainer, let the young kids fly it, and a nice toss it in the bike gear.
Looking forward to hearing it... it might be a Cat entertainer too.

I picked up 4 Parrot Spyder kits on a super sale... I'll pass those to a few young neighborhood future flyer's for surprise Xmas gift. I had one of those... blast to drive across the ceiling.