This year’s edition of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas was definitely a treat for all the drone lovers.
Drones Here, There, Everywhere!
Pink drones, selfie-taking drones, military drones, miniature drones, self-flying drones — the drone zone at the Consumer Electronics Show was as alive as it could possibly be.
This year saw over 20 companies showcasing their drones at the convention compared to a mere four last year. This year’s list of companies included ZANO, Parrot, Qualcomm.com (QCOM) and Nixie.
Nixie brought together two of the hottest technologies of 2015 (wearables and drones) together to form the Wearable Drone. It was the champ of Intel's (INTC) "Make it Wearable" competition.
The Nixie is a flyable drone in the shape of a wearable. The drone by design unfolds on the users command and then takes a flight to capture an image.
Apart from this, there were a variety of drones offering several utilities. The new drones are capable of being controlled by smartphones or tablets. A few of the noteworthy drones demonstrated at CES 2015 were EHang Ghost, Airdog, Hubsan X4 Pro, Hubsan nano Q4, Maxaero X-Star, Zano, and Micro Drone 2.0/3.0 among others.
In short, the CES offered a drone for almost every occasion.
The Future of Drones
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs the tech convention, though drone technology is at a nascent stage, consumers are projected to spend an estimated $103 million on the devices in 2015, up $69 million year over year. At this pace, revenues from the worldwide drone industry could go beyond $1 billion within five years, the trade group predicted.
From the number of companies seen at the CES and their rising capabilities and plummeting cost, it is clear that there is a real belief among manufacturers that these hold the potential to become a mass-market product.
Two primary issues in this field are: regulation and power.
Regulation.
Brain Blau, a research director at Gartner, is of the opinion that drone companies need to trounce high prices and unfeasible design problems to make the machines more attractive to mainstream consumers.
Blau possesses a drone but says the least expensive ones cost about $400. He is of the opinion that the various devices on display at the CES are not yet on sale because the companies are still perfecting the designs.
The likelihood of drones bumping into low-flying planes or nearby humans is a primary reason the Federal Aviation Administration might miss their 2015 deadline set by Congress to legalize the use of drones in U.S. skies.
The FAA, which has not yet issued rules concerning commercial use of drones, predicts that 7,500 of them will be in the skies by 2018. The FAA set up a booth at this year’s convention to talk about its latest attempt to educate companies and drone users about the safe and permissible way to operate the machines.
The second concern is battery life.
According to several drone companies at CES the average battery life for the craft is about 20 minutes – with some managing just 10 minutes of flight time.
Despite these obstacles, drones seem to be here to stay, and those on show at CES are a good example of the current state of the market.
Small, cost-effective and smart, drones are said to have the power to alter the delivery of goods and services. Big companies like Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL) have made a big deal about them.
Both Amazon and Google have been contemplating delivery via drones for some time, but their efforts have not resulted in any commercial service as yet. Part of the problem is their size and the regulatory scrutiny that they naturally receive as a result. Unmanned aircrafts are subject to greater restrictions in both the U.S. and the UK. So it’s not that easy for these tech giants.
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