In a drone industry first, DroneDeploy, a cloud-based drone software platform, today announced the launch of the DroneDeploy App Market, the industry’s first drone-exclusive app store. The new service has launched with more than 15 inaugural apps including offerings from Autodesk. John Deere, Airmap, and Skyward.
DRONELIFE spoke with Nicholas Pilkington, DroneDeploy’s CTO and co-founder, on the goals and purpose of the market. Pilkington said, “We can’t build everything for everyone. By opening up our datasets and platform, we help developers build on top of DroneDeploy to provide custom apps that deliver a complete solution for a specific business need. This platform matches developers to specific business problems and gives them the tools they need to solve them.”
The initial mix of apps offered come from a range of companies that address a variety of industry verticals. Applications include file sharing with Box, importing field boundaries from MyJohnDeere, exporting data to Autodesk, 3D printing of drone maps with WhiteClouds, on-demand flight insurance with Verifly, and more. Other apps include a flight compliance app from AirMap, a roof inspection app from EZ3D, flight logging apps from DroneLogbook, Flyte, Kittyhawk, NVdrones and Skyward, and agriculture apps from Aglytix, AgriSens, Birds.ai, Skymatics, SLANTRANGE and TensorFlight.
DroneDeploy gave these developers access to its dataset of drone imagery. It is a rich dataset. The 10,000+ users across 135 countries have mapped over 8 million acres. That’s an area larger than the size of Belgium. DroneDeploy is the first to take this step in assisting other developers to monetize and distribute their apps within a drone data platform. In doing so, they hope to accelerate innovation within the industry. Mike Winn, CEO and co-founder of DroneDeploy, said, “Businesses have been asking for a more seamless integration of drone data into their workflows, and third-parties have been looking to develop solutions for our global community. The DroneDeploy App Market offers one-click integrations with companies like Box and John Deere, a huge step in enabling commercial drone users.”
Full developer documentation for companies wanting to leverage DroneDeploy APIs to build and distribute apps can be found here.
The DroneDeploy App Market features free and paid apps. Pricing models for paid apps vary upon the app, from per acre for agriculture apps to per report for roof inspection apps. Once added to an account, the new app will appear integrated within the relevant location within the DroneDeploy interface on the web and mobile. For example, if an agriculture app is installed, it may only be visible when viewing the Plant Health data layer and not within other sections of the DroneDeploy interface.
DRONELIFE views this development as both a sign that the industry is maturing and exciting incentive for the industry to grow further still. As Mr. Pilkington said in closing our conversation, “[It is] all about accessibility. We can’t build all these applications ourselves. But our vision of our company was to be productive for everyone, to have a compelling enough offering and not lock anyone out. We want to help solve drone-related problems for everyone. This is the foot of the mountain for us. We are eager to see where we can take it from here.”
To see the full list of new apps visit the DroneDeploy App Market.
To learn more about today’s announcement visit the DroneDeploy blog.
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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