DJI Postpone ‘See The Bigger Picture’ Event and Delay New Drone

The drone industry’s hardware leader DJI has delayed the launch day of its latest product. ‘See The Bigger Picture’, the event that had originally been scheduled for July 18, has been pushed back indefinitely to ensure the company can “exceed customers’ expectations for our technology by the time of the event… and deliver according to our standard of innovation.”

It means DJI customers will have to wait a little longer to see what the Chinese manufacturer has in store for its latest drone. 

DJI delaying a launch event with short notice won’t come as a surprise to industry watchers. Major drone launches from the likes of DJI and GoPro have been characterized by delays, false starts and, in some cases, recalls in recent years. Getting a robot to fly and take orders isn’t a simple process. Producing them at scale without mistakes is even harder. Ironing out all the kinks takes time.

Following Parrot’s release of the ANAFI earlier in the summer, DJI’s priority will be releasing a drone without any technical issues and avoiding anything that could damage their reputation. The company’s established position as the market leader means they don’t need to rush.

See The Bigger Picture: Is this the Mavic 2?

DJI’s ‘See The Bigger Picture’ event has widely been expected to announce the launch of a new drone from the market leader.

Is it worth reading much into the ‘See The Bigger Picture’ tagline? We’re not so sure: there’s only so many camera puns to go around and with each new launch DJI is running out of ones to choose from. The company’s last drone, the Mavic Air, came with the tagline ‘Adventure Unfolds’ prompting speculation that the new model would be rugged and outdoorsy, maybe even weatherproof. It wasn’t. Although it could unfold, so we were half right.

Having said that, a recent leak – the validity of which we can’t authenticate, however convincing it may seem – appears to show the new DJI drone, the Mavic 2:

The drone image, which has been circulating on social media and published elsewhere, clearly has the ‘Mavic 2’ text printed onto the left front leg and appears to reveal a few interesting details about DJI’s next drone.

These include what seems to be a modular gimbal that can be removed and swapped out, and obstacle avoidance sensors on the drone’s side. It also has the same foldable leg system that made the original Mavic Pro one of the first truly portable drones on the market. The color scheme looks pretty similar to the original, too.

It shouldn’t be much longer before we DJI’s launch event is rescheduled and these rumors can be confirmed for good.