Drone Phones MarketSize and Trends

Market- Trends

Quadcopters are being integrated with sophisticated technologies such as gyroscopes, GPS, and high resolution cameras to execute complex tasks such as aerial mapping, aerial photography, monitoring, search & rescue operations, and entertainment tool among many others. In the recent past, a new concept of drone phones has been introduced, which harnesses the power of the smartphone for all additional features such as camera, gyroscope and GPS for its functioning, while the drone itself would be just a housing assembly for the phone and have the mechanical components essential for flight. In 2015, Xcraft Inc., a company based in the U.S., introduced the first concept of drone phones through broadcast on a television show in order to raise investments. The drone allowed for the smartphone to be housed in the body of the drone and use the on-board GPS, camera and other features of the smartphone to navigate and control its flight.

Low manufacturing costs and ease of access to market is expected to fuel demand for drone phones through the forecast period

These phone drones are cost effective and offer a rich suite of programmability features such as return to home, follow-me, and mission modes, which has seen these gain major traction in the recent past. Overall cost of the available drones is well under US$ 300. These devices can even utilize the old model mobiles or phones that have broken screens and cannot be used be used for general purposes. These factors are expected to generate major potential for growth of the drone phones market over the next few years.

Compact design, portability and interoperability are among some of the major benefits of these devices

Chief participants offering smartphone support have extended the applications to almost all the major device platforms such as Android, iOS, and Apple Watch. Compact design, in built battery, portability, and extreme ease of use are among the chief factors that continue to drive demand for drone phones.

Growing interests of established players in the drones market due to its major potential to cannibalize the entertainment quadcopter platform businesses will influence significant R&D investments in the drone phones market

Flone - The Flying Phone is yet another company that has participated in the competition through the introduction of its do it yourself (DIY) model of quadcopter. In January 2017, Selfly.Camera introduced an autonomous flying camera featuring a compact drone body that can be used as mobile cover and can be used for aerial photography. One of the major developments in the industry segment is the growing interests of the smartphone brands to introduce accessories or product in the domain. In November 2017, LG announced its plans to introduce first drone phone in the market, which instead of an accessory will be incorporated into the phone (as by the viral video on YouTube under the tagline).