ob1artkid
lvl.1
United States
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I've noticed from reading a lot of the posts on the Phantom 3 forum that lots of people are unhappy or are complaining about DJI. Generally, the people that are unhappy and upset fall into 4 camps. The first camp are the ones who bought the P2 in last 2 months and now feel that they didn't get enough time to own the latest and greatest. The 2nd camp are those that bought the Inspire but would have definitely preferred the price affordablity of the P3. The 3rd camp are the ones who want waypoints and ground station since it was included in the app for the P2 (I gave my opinion on this in another thread). The 4th and final camp are unhappy because DJI does handles their retail and customer support department departments different than more establishing retailers like Amazon or B&H.
I bought a P2 V.2 about 6 months ago. About 2 months after I got the V.2, the V.3 came out. Four months later, the P3 comes out. I'm on preorder and I can accept that the P3 I will buy will be overtaken in probably 4-6 months.
The drone market is new and I can garauntee you that in the next 6-14 months, drones WILL get outdated quickly and become more and more affordable. This will especially happen as more and more drone companies enter the arena. the biggest company that will enter the arena will be GoPro. They have already stated that they will enter the drone arena in the 2nd half of 2015 and that they will have a drone that will be priced at around $1,000. The rumor is that their drone will have their new Hero 4+/5 which will have 4K at 60FPS and even 6 K or 8K. GoPro has way more distribution power than DJI and has many times the loyal customer base. I expect my P3 to be overtaken by either a GoPro drone, a newer DJI drone to combat the GoPro drone, or something completely out of left field like a Sony, Canon, Panasonic, or another Chinese company entering the arena. Everyone here should know this.
The Inspire is an awesome drone, superior in lots of ways to the P3. But again, I expect it to devalue greatly in the next 12 months. Expect them to sell for $1,200-$1,500 in the next 12 months. I bought my P2 for about $1300 6 months ago. It now sells for $650 on Ebay now. Everyone here should know the short and long term resale vale of the drones they now own and the drones that they will soon get. I'm on preorder for a P3 and I'll be getting one with extra battery for over $1300. By September, something way better will be out and if I want to sell my P3 to get it, I'd have to settle for maybe $600 or less for my P3.
The times that new technology gets introduced and when your old technolgy gets overtaken is NAB in the spring and CES is the fall. If you buy old technology just before NAB and CES, expect it to be overtaken very soon.
I addressed the waypoints and ground station in another thread.
DJI customer service isn't perfect. Even I had some issues with their repair department. Communication was really tough at times from their end and it was up to me to make sure I got good service even after I made payment. However, I can understand their growing pains, especially since they're really a Chinese company that doesn't fully understand standard American service protocol. I expect them to greatly improve very soon. If they don't, they'll get wiped out by other soon to be competeing companies.
Right now, DJI is the best in the marketplace and they really don't have serious competition. However, in the next couple of months, especially by CES in the fall, I expect others to present more serious competition. That will be the time when drone prices and features will improve.
Just my $.02.
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