The $84 Billion Market: Drone Powered Business Solutions

It seems that there is a new research report estimating the size of the drone market out every month – and the numbers just keep getting bigger.  This new report from Grand View Research, Inc. is certainly ambitious in its scope.  The report attempts to estimate not a market in drones themselves, but the quickly expanding market in drone software and services: drone powered business solutions.

The report says that the global market in drone software and services may reach USD 84.31 billion by 2025.  “Real-world applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are expanding faster than ever across a broad range of industries, mainly due to the relaxation of some stringent regulations governing their use and robust investments,” says the report’s press release. “Responding to the rapidly evolving drone technology, various companies across the world are now creating new business and operating models for drone-based services.”

The report’s “Key Findings” include:

• Commercial drones and their applications are expected to become the next big export product for many European companies.

• Drone service providers are now shifting their focus to data collection and processing due to limitations and difficulties in day-to-day data capturing operations, which, in turn, reduces the ability to scale business.

• Legislative and regulatory aspects of drone operations are presently the key factors propelling the adoption of drone-powered business solution by various organizations across the world.

• Bowing out of managing their in-house fleets of drones has been observed as an emerging trend among organizations. Instead, organizations are contracting with third-party service providers under the Drone as a Service (DaaS) license.

• Poland was the pioneer to roll-out a legislation regarding the commercial application of drones, including insurance regulations, rules for Beyond Visible Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights, and required training for pilots, followed by Singapore and South Africa.

The chore of estimating the growth of drone software and services over a span of nearly 10 years seems so daunting that the actual predictions – which we’ve seen vary widely from year to year, and report to report – must be taken with a grain of salt.  But the essential idea that drone powered solutions are a market with huge potential is undeniable.