Skydio Closing Consumer Drone Business (techcrunch.com) 14
Skydio today announced that it will be shutting down its consumer drone business. From a report: Beginning today, the firm will no longer be selling its Skydio 2+ Starter, Sports, Cinema or Pro kits, although it will continue to offer the Skydio 2+ Enterprise Kit to business customers. Skydio also promises to continue supporting those consumers who have already purchased a drone. That includes offering vehicle repairs and other support related to warranties. The company says it will also stock batteries, propellers and other accessories "for as long as we can." The company, which raised a $230 million Series E funding earlier this year, has raised over $550 million across all rounds, according to Crunchbase.
Correct link (Score:3)
Who? (Score:1, Insightful)
Never heard of them. Easy come, easy go I guess.
That's one way to grow a business. (Score:1, Insightful)
> The Bay Area-based Skydio has seen a massive boost, as drone giant DJI has landed on the wrong side of various government bans amid rising U.S./China tensions.
Translation: It's easier to milk inflated government contracts now that the Chinese competition has been knocked out.
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Translation: On the consumer side margins are too thin to provide proper support and we care to do a good job, we want to focus on B2B products that provide enough margin that we can do our best work.
How sad (Score:2)
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They're not leaving the business altogether. They are leaving the consumer business.
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They're not leaving the business altogether. They are leaving the consumer business.
True. Skydio's future is military applications. No one wants to go to war with DJI drones.
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Was it a sour grape after all? (Score:2)
Hm. A couple of years ago I applied there. A guy I had worked with in a prior job was there and agreed to pass my resume in. They took a pass on me. I was a bit disappointed because what could be more fun that writing software for drones? The commute across the bay would be kind of a bitch though.
This particular bit of news doesn't surprise me. Consumer grade drones are so commoditized that I am surprised they aren't being handed out in happy meals.
On the other hand seeing how effective they have
Any Opportunities for Clearance Priced Units? (Score:1)
Searching around, it looks like they were only sold directly from the manufacturer, or the consumer distribution channels got shut down quickly.
It doesn’t look like there will be clearance priced units around like there were many years ago for the 3DR Solo drones.
Another 3DR (Score:1)
High cost of staying in business (Score:2)
IMHO, the company made a big mistake in locating themselves in California never mind the Bay Area. The overhead costs are too high for small market consumer products. That said, speaking as an OEM, I can tell you that the pandemic and more accurately, the boneheaded response to the pandemic everywhere along the supply chain is killing off small-market products. Lead times that used to be a few weeks were promised at 8 months but that stretched out to over a year. Nothing changed in the actual production