New Solo Production ?

[kabong57]

So I have read on this board that there has only been 1 production run of Solo parts and all Solos are assembled from that stock. If You order from Amazon today they expect delivery with-in 2 months. How big is that stock pile of parts? Maybe a new production run? Or just trying to use up the inventory from over predicting market share?

 

[Don H.]

Based on what Chris wrote on DIYdrones. It doesn't look like there will be any subsequent Solo runs. They want to play with the big boys.

 

[Don H.]

Here's a snipit of the discussion Chris had with a user regarding Solo.


Does 3DR plan to keep selling consumer grade AP/AV quadcopters, or once existing stock is gone, Solo is done? I think many, including myself, would eventually like to see a version 2. Maybe larger, better flight times. Don't want to see the yearly release schedule, like some companies do, but after 2-3 years a version 2 with more/better hardware would be nice.

Answer from CA:



John: Now that that FAA commercial regs are in place and the cloud side of our stack is out and performing well, we're accelerating our move to 100% enterprise. The plummeting price points and competition on the consumer side makes that market uneconomic for anything other than the biggest consumer electronics companies (and maybe even for them) so you won't see additional *consumer* vehicles from us directly. But from our partners, who knows? ;-)

 

[twitchyzero]

who's their...partners?

sounds like they're hinting GoPro...?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

That is saddening, however not surprising. You can only build and sell what the market will bear. I love 3DR's products, but I can't fault them for not wanting to sell products that people don't buy enough of. This could however make the $599 sales more critical!

 

[Ed Beck]

Kinda says they don't really care about the cinematography market at all.

 

[kabong57]

So I have read on this board that there has only been 1 production run of Solo parts and all Solos are assembled from that stock. If You order from Amazon today they expect delivery with-in 2 months. How big is that stock pile of parts? Maybe a new production run? Or just trying to use up the inventory from over predicting market share?

So now what? Jump on the Prime special for the ultimate spare parts "kit" or just fly till first major crash and walk away?

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

So now what? Jump on the Prime special for the ultimate spare parts "kit" or just fly till first major crash and walk away?

Nothing said anything about when they expect to run out of product. You can still buy them, still get parts, and still get warranty service. Maybe eventually it will get to the point where they have no more to sell. Then a year later, there will be no more warranty claims. Parts will then last as long as they last. But I don't see any evidence of this being on any specific timeline.

Kinda says they don't really care about the cinematography market at all.

No it doesn't. The opposite actually. It says the cinematography market doesn't care about 3DR. Not enough to be a worthwhile business anyway. If there isn't enough demand for the product, and they can't make people want it enough to drive up demand, that's where business finds something else to do. You can't just keep spending money on something that isn't selling and has no market.

 

[pyrate]

just my opinion but 3DR is made of many parts
they could not compete in the consumer market because they blew so many things on the PR side.
They made a rock solid product, backed it up with world class service. But the stumbled over their own two feet when it came to marketing and PR.
Self inflicted wounds

 

[PdxSteve]

I'm stocked up on parts (motor pods, batteries, props) and also have a backup solo. I'm not really worried. I plan to fly as long as I can with it, or until something that is actually better than the solo WITH graceful smartshots comes out, and that is my criteria. Not obstacle avoidance, etc. Capturing the best, smoothest, repeatable and most beautiful aerial camera moves is what's important to me without needing a 2nd pilot. This $600 bird still outperforms anything else on the market to date in that category, imo. It's all about the software at this point. Hardware is really secondary now and mostly basically the same thing from different manufacturers in different form factors (except flight controller).

just my opinion but 3DR is made of many parts
they could not compete in the consumer market because they blew so many things on the PR side.
They made a rock solid product, backed it up with world class service. But the stumbled over their own two feet when it came to marketing and PR.
Self inflicted wounds

That, and DJI cut them off at the pass by cutting P3 prices and introduced the P4 with the obstacle avoidance gimmick about the same time when solo launched. The lemmings marched. Not having the gimbal available when solo launched was also a serious miscalculation as the press and early customers beat them up on that, and rightfully so. Then when they did get their gimbal it didn't work with bugs in the fw/sw. All sorted now but their rep got bruised pretty badly.

Solo clearly is a superior product in just about every area except the people who run/ran it and they made some mammoth miscalculations about the market, launch/price point and what their major competitor would do. They produced Solo in such a large quantity that the profit margin is quite high. They're still making money selling Solo for slightly less than 1/2 of what it originally cost. If they were to produce more, there is no way they would be as cheap (for them) as the originals as they wouldn't manufacture it on that scale again, and the larger the manufacturing volume the cheaper it is.

 

[pyrate]

totally agree.
now only if PH2 and Arducopter merge. We can hope for some enterprising developer to create an app for DIY frames.

Phillip is in TW right now and posting pictures of the first run of PH2 and carriers

 

[Ed Beck]

Capturing the best, smoothest, repeatable and most beautiful aerial camera moves is what's important to me without needing a 2nd pilot.

Solo clearly is a superior product

Completely agree with you in this regard. Clients ask me why I don't use DJI. I tell them because I care about the final product, not flying around. Then I explain that I shoot aerial video/stills the same way I shoot my land-based stills, 95% of the time setting it up and 5% of the time shooting it.

Of course where I really save time is in post.Life is so much easier when you have nice smooth video to work with.

 

[twitchyzero]

They made a rock solid product, backed it up with world class service B

debatable. if it's rock solid you wouldn't need a gazillion mods to get what was promised.

when you have nice smooth video to work with.

again, debatable. I don't feel the competitors product produce less smooth videos in terms of gimbal performance (not smart shots, that's obviously unrivaled in the Solo)

 

[Ed Beck]

again, debatable. I don't feel the competitors product produce less smooth videos in terms of gimbal performance (not smart shots, that's obviously unrivaled in the Solo)

Smart shots is what I'm referring to. A client wanted me to fly down the road and into his driveway, cable cam made it doable.

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[Pedals2Paddles]

I want that house.

 

[Ed Beck]

I want that house.

The Realtors name and number are at the end

 

[Ed Beck]

 

[Joe Horn]

So I have read on this board that there has only been 1 production run of Solo parts...

There have been at least two production runs of the Solo batteries. Here's a photo of one of my original batteries (obtained last October), with one obtained last week below it. Notice the different manufacture dates. And slightly revised label.

 

[Tomsu]

At least 3 runs, 06/2015 on one of my batteries.

 

[Maddog]

Smart shots is what I'm referring to. A client wanted me to fly down the road and into his driveway, cable cam made it doable.

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Nice! I wonder what the driver of that car was thinking seeing Solo coming towards him!