Guest Post: This article published with permission from our friends at DroneII, Drone Industry Insights. Article authored by Kay Wackwitz.Last year, together with INTEAERIAL Solutions, we conducted a Drone Barometer Survey to produce a free whitepaper with perspectives from the drone industry. The paper proved so popular and so many of you who attended the IAS conference asked for it again, that we decided to create a Drone Industry Barometer 2.0. Having gathered data from over 500 respondents from 74 countries, we now have broader and more thorough barometer results than ever before.
To address increasing demand and answer your calls for more views from non-European drone industry papers, we decided that this year the survey would be even bigger. This survey highlights a variety of challenges that the drone industry continues to face, as well as the changes in perspectives compared to 2018.
The Drone Industry Had a Difficult Year
Comparing last year’s perspectives to this year’s, drone companies had a much more difficult time than expected. While many predicted that this year would be fairly positive and strong for them, it turns out that many companies struggled to increase their sales and as such did not grow as quickly as they had anticipated.
Sales & Marketing in the Spotlight
More and more resources are being spent on sales and marketing. Survey results show major increases in company spending on improving sales & marketing apparatuses, while product development is getting allocated less money.
Mapping and Inspections Get Outsourced, but Surveying and Monitoring Do Not
We asked drone service companies to tell us for what purposes they use drones. Here we found out that drone service providers (DSPs) often handle tasks like mapping and inspections. Meanwhile, more operational tasks like surveying and monitoring stay in house and are mainly handled by internal drone services.
Regulators Don’t Make Life Easy
When asked to identify the biggest hurdles to their business, most companies pointed to regulations. Whether they are unclear, inconsistent or simply stringent, the current rules and regulations are causing difficulties for the drone industry.
“The Drone
Industry Barometer is one of our most valuable tools to date. Getting to hear industry perspectives on such a high level across the board gives us the most comprehensive understanding of the drone market today.”
Kay Wackwitz, CEO and Founder of DRONEII
E2E Solutions Are the Future
When asked about who the most important market-driving actors are, most companies listed E2E (end-to-end) solution providers. This is largely because their customers are increasingly seeking all-in-one drone solutions to fulfill their demands. As these companies continue to fine-tune their products, it’s clear to the drone industry that its future hinges on E2E solutions in order to outcompete traditional (non-drone) approaches.
Want to know more? Get our new Drone Industry Barometer Whitepaper!
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Views from over 500 companies
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Covering 74 countries
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Outline of resource spending and priorities for the next year
Named one of the most influential people in the commercial drone industry by the Commercial UAV Expo, Kay established DRONEII as the leading drone market research consultancy after working for Lufthansa. As well as personally consulting on projects and producing reports, he frequently speaks at conferences, seminars and expos.
[…] Leading drone research and consulting firm DRONEII has announced the annual survey of the drone industry, which will inform the 2020 Drone Industry Barometer Report. Drone professionals are encouraged to participate in the survey, which will result in DRONEII’s in-depth report on the state of the drone market. (See last year’s report here.) […]