Tough Market
“We exited hardware and we exited consumer partly because it was a tough market,” he said. “DJI is an amazing company and lots of people got pounded.
“It was just brutal.”
"We’re a Silicon Valley company and we’re supposed to be doing software and there are Chinese companies that are supposed to be doing hardware.”
Can't say I agree with some of these statements, but alas, this has all played out already. Other interesting tidbits relating to a previously proposed acquisition by DJI are also in the article.
Describes one of the last chapters of the 3DR history book fairly accurately though.
Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2016/10/05/3d-robotics-solo-crash-chris-anderson
Comments
Too big ambition and wrong decision just destroyed 3DR in Solo.
Ardupilot likes Linux, DJI likes Windows. 3DR should work as Ubuntu or Red Hat etc. I ordered one Pixhawk from 3DR website last year, it took over 2 months to reach my desk. It's crazy slow. Maybe the factory focused on Solo at that time.
I know lots of people hate Chinese clone Pixhawk, but if you release schematic of Pixhawk to some company in Shenzhen where DJI is, you will get the mass production maybe in 3 weeks. If Apple can make Iphone there, why did 3DR not use that power house?
@Doug -- you are one of the most familiar faces on DIYD with regards Arducopter, so it is not like you do not know how this stuff works. This is my issue at heart with Solo and always has been -- Arducopter was just not properly deployed on this machine, for whatever reason. From bunny hops, tip-overs, so-so wifi link, and questionable GPS performance it just was never quite right or as good as a competent DIY effort with AC, or so it seemed to me. I think all of those issues were fixable if a true v2 Solo had ever been produced.
I picked a virgin used Phantom 4 with all trimmings this week (hate to say it but what a refinement even over the already good P3) - Mavik has killed the resale price of these. I would still get a Solo if I was convinced that it had a hackable future....and I mean better gimbal, DIY batteries, other payloads, and latest branch of Arducopter. I might add I have 6 DIY Arducopters that fly....
@Rob_Lefebvre,
Sadly a week ago I was filming our rescue squad and standing out front in the shadows and performed a flyover to the rear of the lot and station and noted the RSSi dropped rapidly and the drone flew off instead of RTL. Lucky it cleared an apartment complex and lodged itself high up in a pine tree (which took a feat of creativity to get down). My Y6, X8 and Hexa have not had this problem and frankly my trust in Solo is a bit shaken. So I really do not know what went wrong. I could not lift off until the copter had a good GPS lock (9 sats, min required 8) and it flew in open skies at least 50-75 above structures. I will now only fly with transceiver in a clear line with the Solo from now on out.
I don't know why we even have a DIY Forum when all it is used for is to advertise commercial out of the box solutions? Hopefully Jordi gets it right with mRobotics.
Too much VC money, sometimes is better to say no, maybe only the first few rounds of investing should have been accepted, but when too much money came in it just became a bubble with where bursting was just a matter of time. I said it well before this happened, 3DR was a bubble about to burst.
Very bad decisions from management and inexperience I believe.
Too much VC money, sometimes is better to say no, maybe only the first few rounds of investing should have been accepted, but when too much money came in it just became a bubble with where bursting was just a matter of time. I said it well before this happened, 3DR was a bubble about to burst.
Very bad decisions from management and inexperience I believe.
I am another person who was really surprised with 3dr's total pivot towards 100% proprietary products while completely abandoning their DIY market. I was with the crowd thinking it was a very risky move to depend on a single egg in a single basket while walking away from everything that was good and valuable about your company originally. But I understand that a VC driven business is no longer your own, and everything becomes a drive to create stuff you own completely.
Maybe a part of 3dr can pivot back to the DIY market? That would be kind of cool. Maybe some other company can come along and keep their focus similar to what 3dr was in it's glory days?
From everything I've seen, Chris Anderson is an outstanding visionary and inspired a whole industry of DIY'ers. This web site, the ardu* code, all the original ardupilot hardware ... none of that would have existed (or not in it's current form) without Chris doing many things really right on. I do wish Chris and his team all the best in their future adventures.
Speaking personally ... I do think a pivot back towards simpler hardware and simpler software would breath a lot of fresh air into the DIY community. Everything grows more complex with time and complexity creates barriers for new people to enter.
I wrote infamous while I wanted to say inglorious.
The abandon of DIY market by 3DR was a big mistake.
They could create a new company to market the Solo and continue to make high quality hardware for DIY market.
Nobody has ever blame 3DR for the price of the APM or the Pixhawk , if you put a 2000$ camera or a 6000$ Flir camera on a flying brick you choose the best flight controller not the cheapest one.
Mikrokopter was the inventor of the drone in a box concept , hardware has never been cheap, but it always been a good product with very little bugs.
And they are still there.
In Germany someone estimates 400.000 drones , a lot of these are from Mikrokopter.
A company that abandoned his loyal customers or worst, mocks them with promises of a new product that will never come, deserve an infamous end.
Thank You Healthyfatboy,
I will definitely look into it, if it is good and reliable, $30.00 is a bargain, especially if it offers any significant enhancements.
Best regards,
Gary
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