Blogs

We just announced the launch of our third annual Drone Market Sector Research survey, which promises to be its most comprehensive study of drone market trends and usage to date. The online portion of this research seeks to get information about who is buying and using small unmanned aircraft systems—otherwise known as drones. It improves upon the 2017 research by, among other things:

• Asking more specific questions about flight operations and flight times
• Investigating the adoption and maturity of enterprise and/or public agency drone programs
• Diving into how users geo-reference images for maps

Take the brief 10-minute survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2018_drone_market

As an incentive for participation in the survey, there will be an opportunity to:

• Receive a free summary report of the research results, a $95 value
• Enter to win a free DJI Spark mini drone package (a $425 value) or one of two $100 VISA gift cards.

What’s new?

This year’s research is designed to uncover fresh insights on which drone industry sectors are thriving (and which aren’t) and how businesses are using drone-acquired data in their day-to-day operations. Skylogic Research hopes the survey results will fill a gap in knowledge and understanding of the commercial drone industry around:

• Actual drone and drone data usage (most reports forecast use but don’t survey actual users)
• How and why operators and users are deploying drones now and how/why they plan to grow their use in the future
• Baseline statistics for market share among the brands as well as information about the size of service providers, enterprises, and businesses that have drone programs

The online portion of this year’s research seeks to get information about who is buying and using small unmanned aircraft systems. This independent study is being supported by DJI, DroneDeploy, DroneInsurance.com, and Trimble.

The survey will explore:

• Who’s buying what types of drones from which makers at which prices and for what uses?
• How large are drone-based service providers, and how and where are they positioning themselves to whom and which target industries?
• What most concerns businesses that perform drone-based projects and why?
• How much are service providers, business buyers, and public agencies using flight management and data analytic software for image-based projects?

Our previous studies have found that more consumer drones are being used for professional use than ever before, the U.S. market is flooded with service providers and remote pilots but very few make enough money to sustain a full-time venture, and film / photo / video dominates both the hobby and professional uses of drones. This year’s study will continue to challenge these insights and explore further the sustainability of drone service providers.

Who should take the survey?

• Individuals or organizations who have purchased a drone in the past 12 months for any reason
• Commercial drone service providers
• Businesses, enterprises, and public agencies that perform drone-based operations

Why this study?

We believe the consumer and commercial drone market needs this annual benchmark study. There is a lack of objective information on the drone industry. We find an absence of credible market-based research and little understanding of the difference between large industry forecasts and actual buyer adoption rates. This study will clarify much of that.

When complete, the research study will provide a complete view of topics like:

• Critical industry drivers
• Vendor and service provider market share
• Business and public agency adoption trends and issues

The survey will be open for four weeks, and the results will be available in September.

Image: Shutterstock and Skylogic Research