DJI Hints at New Product Launch on October 11

It’s that time of year again. Another mysterious promotional video has been released by DJI and we’re going to do our best to decipher it. It looks as though this is trailing a new product that’s due to launch on October 11. The details beyond that are wide open.

The Next Stage in Cinematic Vision?

DJI’s latest trailer has aired as ‘The Next Stage in Cinematic Vision’. So what does that even mean? If we didn’t know better, we’d expect that this bold tagline represents a type of product we haven’t seen before, something relatively new.

But of course this is DJI, a company that loves to rapidly iterate its drones and has gradually taken over the market using that business model. So could this be a new drone in the Phantom series, the long-awaited Phantom 5? Or perhaps a new Mavic Pro?

Both would make sense, given that DJI’s last new releases were minor upgrades to the Phantom 4 Pro and the Mavic Pro. In the cynical world of consumer drones, launching the Mavic Pro Platinum and Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian in September, raking in the pre-orders, and then releasing a completely new model a month later… well that’s par for the course.

So here’s the video. Take a look and make your own mind up…

So What Could It Be?

We know that these types of promotional video are usually dominated by footage shot with the product at hand. So that’s why this video is interesting: It features shots that are obviously taken from a handheld gimbal along with aerial photography.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence. But maybe it’s also a clue as to the functionality of DJI’s new product. Maybe it’s suggesting that the product is both a drone and a handheld gimbal, a modular device that can be adapted to suit the situation you’re faced with. A device not totally different from the GoPro Karma.

Clearly, this would be terrible, terrible news for GoPro. With DJI models beating the Karma in every department except modularity, a move towards a 2-in-1 product could make life even more difficult for one of the last US manufacturers left standing.

But it’s not that ridiculous. After all, DJI has all the hardware to put a drone like that together. Its camera technology is superb, along with its drones. And the handheld Osmo has proven popular. It’s just a case of fitting all three together.

A Phantom 5 is the most likely reveal to come from DJI, but the start of a completely different range – particularly in the run up to Christmas – would receive plenty of attention.

But that’s enough speculation for one day. We’ll find out a 5pm PST on Oct 11, when DJI will be unveiling “the next stage in cinematic vision.”