Congrats to AirDroids, who's PocketDrone Kickstarter campaign raised nearly $1 million. Delighted to see another APM platform company hit it big! From TechCrunch:
The AirDroids Pocket Drone is a soaring success. Keep reading for more bad puns.
The Hardware Battlefield contestant’s Kickstarter campaign just ended with the company raking in over 2,000 preorders for the Pocket Drone. The campaign ended with $929,212 in pledges, becoming the most popular drone project on Kickstarter.
Timothy Reuter, president and co-founder of AirDroids, tells me the company is thrilled by the results.
“Hitting close to a million dollars and becoming the most popular drone project in the history of Kickstarter validates our idea that there is huge demand for convenient and accessible consumer drone products,” Reuter said. “In the same way that point of view videography, with tools like a GoPro, has transformed the way we tell stories, we think the widespread ability to capture aerial imagery will empower people to understand their world in new ways. We are looking forward to a future where everyone will be able to have their own personal flying robot.”
The Pocket Drone will ship to Kickstarter backers this summer. Starting in April the drone and accessories will also be available for pre-ordering on AirDroids.com. The company is also in talks with well-known retailers, and Reuter tells me the company plans on having the Pocket Drone on shelves this fall.
The company is seeking venture capital to grow out its team, develop a line of Pocket Drone accessories, and continue to innovate.
The guys behind the pocket drone impressed the judges at TechCrunch’s inaugural Hardware Battlefield held at CES 2014 where they demonstrated the device for the first time. As the name suggests, the Pocket Drone is a pocketable drone that folds up for easy storage and transportation. While it won’t fit in the pocket of your jeans, it’s certainly compact enough to easily stuff in a small bag.
Expect big things from AirDroids. As the success of its first product shows, this is a company that knows it’s high-flying market.
Comments
What i mean is that in important projects the main contributor on the software are from companies, in the case of openCV is google, yahoo, nvidia, intel... in the arducopter project, the main contributors are people like you rob, that dont spend full time on the project (because you obviously cant).
Nvidia, it sells gpu's, the company wants that the people that use openCV buy its gpu's, what Nvidia does, is get a team to port part of the algorithms to Cuda.
And that is why openCV is such an exelent library, because companies invert money on it.
Well, at least in my point of view.
Uh, what?
Quadzimodo, i think that you are pointing to some of the major issues of the opensource world, but i think that you are looking at them in a oversimplified way, and ignoring the fact that there is a need of buisness supporting all of the opensource projects.
I do think, that there are a lot of unfair and some kind of "unhealthy" things on the ardupilot project, for example the fact that 3DR is not a major part of the software developing team, a some kind of "too liberal" lisence that does not even force the projects using ardupilot to mention it, ...
Some very important projects like openCV, are heavily supported by several companies and universities.
It looks like they buy everything from HK. Do the math theres not much left over to buy a real APM.
HELMETS! - we will all need to start wearing helmets when we go outside after they start shipping these......
dennis
Substitute the words "drinking up Chris Anderson's special brand of Kool-Aid" with "listening intently to Chris Anderson's sage like teachings" or "worshipping at the alter of Chris Anderson"
Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but:
If ever you needed evidence that drinking up Chris Anderson's special brand of Kool-Aid is more than worth your while, the AirDroids team and their incredibly successful Pocket Drone campaign should serve as the ultimate poster child.
Find success by embracing your inner geek:
* Be inventive, get creative, and explore what's possible
* Identify a niche not being satisfied by established suppliers (hit critical price to achieve critical mass)
* Design something (collapsible APM equipped drone for under USD$500)
* Start digital (create and build your design in 3D)
* Make it yourself (leverage democratising power of 3D printer to bypass entrenched processes which are expensive, time consuming and logistically constraining)
Overcome barriers to entry and bypass 20th century tests of talent acquisition:
* Forget that you have no degree or format education
* Disregard the fact that you have no professional experience
* Submit yourself to the web's talent discovery model
Harness the immense power of Open Source Hardware:
* Externalise development costs (pass troubleshooting and product support onto customers)
* Drive product evolution (customers contribute to development and innovation)
Leverage the crowd funding potential of Kickstarter to:
* Bring capital forward (Attract pre-orders so to eliminate need for substantial initial capital outlay)
* Market research (cost effective way of finding out if the market wants what you are selling)
* Build a community (You care more about something you buy on Kickstarter, than you do in a store. There's something of you in it. You build a connection and value it more than something that is mass produced.)
Bring manufacturing back to the US by becoming a Maquiladora:
* Become a Mexican high-tech entrepreneur and set yourself up in America's Shenzhen
* Utilise the Special Economic Zone which exists just south of the US border (also outside USA's export control zone))
While I, and many others, might take exception to the list of questionable things these guys have done so far to ensure success, the AirDroids team really are to be admired for their surgical implementation of Chris Anderson's teachings and philosophies, as well as well as their fantastic marketing nous. The incredible success of their campaign also demonstrates to all just how easy it is to be a mover and shaker in this rapidly emerging product/market segment.
Where can I get those folding prop adapters and the props?
it s good new for arducopter communauty....we grown up (communauty) day after day and we have more feedback
no no difference other than with diy drones, you guys have some warnings about what to do and what not to do when they buy an rtf
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