Should GoPro and Skydio return to making consumer drones?

With the House passing the ban on new DJI drones here in the US and the possibility of a similar bill passing the Senate, is it time US companies try to enter the market? Are there even any companies left that could make it work?

Back in 2016 GoPro announced a new product to complement its line of innovative action cameras, Karma. A drone that would allow you to slide in your GoPro Hero camera and take off to capture glorious aerial footage, for ten minutes.

The Karma was highly anticipated from GoPro users and was expected to bring heavy competition to DJI, which had just released its Phantom 3 4K drone earlier that year. Unfortunately, the drone flopped, suffering from connectivity and flight issues that made it more of a safety risk than a camera.

You can still buy Karmas on eBay for hundreds of dollars even though they aren’t supported by its manufacture, and many can’t even connect to its controller.

Eight years later, not much has changed in the consumer drone world. DJI still dominates the market and now there’s a chance the US could be without future drones from them. The enterprise market has thrived, also dominated by DJI, but the consumer side seems one-sided.

If future DJI drones do, in fact, get banned from the US the only options will be Autel (until they too get banned?) and cheap DJI knock offs (also from China).

The business opportunity is there. A gap in affordable consumer camera drones by a US company that already has a lockdown on the action camera space. It might just be the jolt needed by a company who’s stock price is nearing the sub-$1 point.

However, is the risk too great? GoPro would have to succeed, the company’s reputation of developing any new products outside of action cameras would be on the line, if it failed to produce a usable drone twice. And with that low stock price, a failure could tank it and bring a delisting notice from the NASDAQ.

Skydio: I promise I don’t have abandonment issues

Skydio‘s CEO recently came out denying it had any involvement in getting a DJI ban implemented by the House but admitted the company did lobby the government about the safety risks of Chinese drones.

Although we don’t blame the government for the passage of prohibition, but the preachers and wives that fear-mongered the public into supporting it.

So it just so happens that within a year, Skydio discontinued its consumer drone product, a drone that by all accounts told to me is the nearly the same as its X2 drone, and claims it was totally not a part of getting its biggest competitor one step closer to being banned in the US.

The community has long wanted a Skydio 3 drone, although the Skydio 2 was never a favorite of mine to fly. The same business opportunity GoPro has is also at Skydio’s feet, return to the consumer drone market now that DJI might not be able to directly sell its drones here.

Hypocritical? Maybe. Genius business move? Definitely.

The Skydio 2 was a great drone for those looking for hands-free filming of them on their next adventure. It fell short when you wanted to take manual control over it, always feeling like you’re not actually in control. However, I would be lying if I told you I wouldn’t be interested in trying out a third edition because it truly was the closest competitor to DJI.