DJI Product Launch on May 24th – Could It Be Spark?

Murmurs have been going around in press circles this week after DJI sent out invitations for yet another launch event. What we know so far is this: There will be a DJI product launch on May 24th. The rest is speculation. As ever, the product or service in question has been kept tightly under wraps, but we think we might have a good idea of what’s on the horizon.

There was plenty of excitement at the NAB Show in Las Vegas last month surrounding DJI, but all of the releases were focused on the commercial market. So the announcement later in May is a chance for the company to once again flex its muscles in the consumer space.

DJI’s press invites usually give some clue as to what’s coming. But the kind of clue you can only understand in hindsight. With that in mind, we’re going to analyze that tiny shred of information, look at it alongside some of the Chinese manufacturer’s recent announcements and speculate as to the next big reveal.

So first of all, this is what the press invite looks like:

Seize the moment. To us, ‘Seize the moment’ is referring to something fast, not necessarily in terms of speed but in terms of the time it takes to use. In a drone context that could be something small and portable, similar to the tiny, foldable selfie drones that have been hitting the market in recent months.

We’ve never been ones to turn down the chance to overly analyze a color scheme. So with that in mind, the pattern and colors at the top of the invite suggest agility and flair. It actually looks like something DRL would release – it’s definitely got FPV racing vibes. But as we

DJI Product Launch: Spark, Mavic’s little brother or both?

Our best guess would be something small, fast and aimed at the consumer market – either a racing drone or the DJI Spark that’s been ‘leaked’ in recent weeks. A portable selfie drone would make a lot of sense: It’s the one area of the drone market that DJI is yet to delve into, and its biggest competitors all have drones selling in the >$400 range.

While a smaller, more beginner-friendly drone seems the most obvious route for DJI to go down, it would definitely be a lot of fun if the company built its own racing drone instead. But with FPV racing still in its infancy, that kind of move might be a few years down the line. On top of that, all the leaked images of the Spark that we’ve have a camera on a gimbal, which is pretty far removed from traditional racers.

The Phantom 5?

While all the signs point to a big reveal of the small DJI Spark, there’s an outside chance that we could be way off the mark. DJI could well be readying to launch the latest in its Phantom range, the Phantom 5.

In April 2015 and March 2016 the Phantom 3 and 4 were released respectively, so aren’t we due a new model? Although we’ve spoken before about how the current DJI product launch strategy has seen the company become its own biggest competition, another iteration in the Phantom range wouldn’t come as a surprise.