Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Parrot is creating a new ‘prosumer’ drone division after cutting a third of its workforce

With three new drones.

Parrot Disco-Pro AG
Parrot Disco-Pro AG
Parrot Disco-Pro AG
Parrot

French drone maker Parrot is starting a new division to bridge the gap between its extremely expensive commercial line, which cost upward of $11,000, and its extremely inexpensive consumer drones, which can cost as little as $100.

The new division, dubbed Parrot Professional, is now making drones that fall into the “prosumer” category, the $1,000-$5,000 price range. Drones in this new division are intended to support construction and agriculture with a new work tool without the need for a professional pilot.

Earlier this year, Parrot announced it was laying off nearly 300 employees, about a third of its entire drone operation, and reorganizing the company to focus more on aircraft for commercial applications.

Poor performance in the fourth quarter of 2016 caused the company to miss its sales estimates by 15 percent, and Parrot projected that sales in its consumer drone business were unlikely to improve enough to generate “profitable growth ... over the medium and long term.”

The French drone manufacturer is one of the few companies that actually competes with China’s DJI, the biggest drone maker in the world. DJI holds about 50 percent of the market share for commercial and consumer drones North America, according to Colin Snow, founder of Skylogic Research, a firm tracking the drone industry.

Still, DJI is stiff competition. For drones in the $500 to $1,000 price range, DJI claimed about 36 percent of the market by units sold in North America last year. Parrot captured around 7 percent of the market in the same price range, Snow found.

To ring in the new division, Parrot is unveiling three new drones, all of which are basically souped-up versions of aircraft from its consumer line.

The Disco-Pro AG, for example, is a modification on the Disco drone, loaded with high-performance sensors and autonomous flight-planning software. That drone will be available for sale in June and will cost $4,500.

The other two drones are tweaked versions of the Bebop-Pro 3D, which provides aerial image capture for 3-D modeling, and the Bebop-Pro Thermal, which is equipped with a thermal imaging camera. The Bebop-Pro 3D will cost $1,100 and will be available in June. The price for the Pro-Thermal has not been released, nor has its availability date.

DJI has long made drones in the “prosumer” category, though until recently those have in large part catered to use cases in advanced camerawork and cinematography. The Chinese drone company does have a small line of aircraft it markets for things like power line inspection and crop spraying, and last year it hosted a conference in San Francisco, AirWorks, in an effort to engage deeper with the construction, agriculture and industrial inspection industries.

Parrot, on the other hand, has been serving customers in agriculture and construction for years, mostly through its commercial subsidiary Sensefly, which sells a wide range of aircraft that range in price between $11,000 and $25,000, according to a Parrot spokesperson.

The French drone maker’s new “prosumer” bridge between its super-high end and low-priced consumer products may give Parrot a leg up on DJI when it comes to serving new smaller agricultural and construction customers, since it’s already familiar with the needs of those industries with Sensefly.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

See More:

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh