After dishing out pretty much every possible image and specification detail on the still (officially) unannounced DJI Air 3 UAV Wednesday, ascendant leaker Igor Bogdanov immediately moved on to his next mission: Revealing the global drone giant’s work to introduce what he says is a UAV specially made for aerial deliveries.
Bogdanov’s series of social media posts Wednesday night provided compelling evidence of a DJI delivery drone heading toward official unveiling – possibly today.
Coming as they did in the wake of his flood of Air 3 spec and image leaks earlier in the day, the offerings helped solidify the status of Bogdanov and his @Quadro_News feed as the most active and effective source of inside DJI product development since at least the start of 2023.
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Prior to breaking the visually grabbing news on the DJI delivery UAV, Bodanov wrapped up his barrage of Air 3 leaks with what had been the remaining detail future users needed to know about it.
“What’s the pricing on the new drone?” he tweeted. “It’s gonna be like this: – DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo (RC 2) – $1,594. – DJI Air 3 Fly More Combo (RC-N2) – $1,394.”
Within sixty minutes, Bogdanov had turned the Air 3 page to open the new DJI delivery drone chapter. Over the following three hours, he offered up three still images presumably captured from what the surging leaker described as the “official teaser” for the enterprise craft he said may be introduced today.
In contrast to the earlier UAVs he fleshed out even as the company continued developing them – all featuring multiple, increasingly sophisticated onboard cameras and other data collection sensors – the most distinguishing detail of the new DJI drone is the payload container and pointedly didactic inscription visible in Bogdanov’s video offering.
“DJI is looking to gain a foothold in the drone delivery industry and as such will soon be unveiling a delivery drone to compete with the Autel Titan,” Bogdanov notes in text accompanying the photo. “What do you think?”
Learned responses essentially advised, “forget the tech: Look at the activity,” and in doing so measured lukewarm at best.
The view of former DJI insider and Drone Analyst expert David Benowitz about the firm betting big on a specialized delivery drone represented a laconic and unconvinced “meh.” Another ex-company executive and respected sector authority, Brendan Schulman, was more qualified in his skepticism – at least in certain countries.
In addition to those regulatory brakes on rapid drone delivery development in the US in general, DJI craft in particular risk stiffening headwinds from national and state politicians seeking to blacklist company tech amid growing anti-China sentiment. Similar moves are afoot in Australia, and to a lesser degree Japan.
However, potentially enormous aerial delivery markets in Europe, Asia, and especially Africa, will be far more inclined to remain pragmatic about whether DJI craft dominate expanding drone service fleets. Policies across those regions are more likely to prioritize price-per-performance and safety criteria – and avoidance of trade-based conflict with Beijing – over country of origin and thus far unsubstantiated data leak concerns in shaping the hardware makeup of their aerial service fleets.
Read: Report reveals vast impact if US blacklisting of DJI drones spreads
Whichever way that shapes up, Bodganov will continue ferreting out details on ostensibly secret DJI drone development programs – and causing company execs to yelp in shock and pique as he delivers more of their confidential product details.
Such anticipated reactions are doubtless behind Bogdanov’s now trademark style of both playfully tweaking the firm’s nose as he dishes more of its dirt, and maximizing reader curiosity by alerting them to new rumors he only reveals later the same day.
That presentation flair may have also allowed Bogdanov to invent a new genre in the usually down-and-dirty, straight-to-the-dope investigative reporting activity – the leak teaser.
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