The DJI Mavic Drone Goes for GoPro’s Jugular, But Can It Connect?

Today DJI announced their new drone, the Mavic, a very impressive piece of modern technology. This announcement comes just a week after GoPro announced their Karma platform, and does exactly what I said it would when that release came out… More functionality, at a lower price. But is it enough?

Small, very small. No more “backpack size”, the Mavic folds to 1/3rd the size of a piece of paper, this means you can just throw it in a bag or backpack with the rest of your gear, no dedicated carry needed.
27min flight time. A very impressive number, and coming in close to 10 minutes more than Karma.
5 camera vision system — Not gonna lie, this is essentially a technological marvel at this price point. Mavic will sense and avoid obstacles in front of it and land with centimeter precision
Redundant sensors — Let’s just say, DJI really doesn’t want you to crash your drone.
4k 12mp 3-axis stabilized footage — Higher stats than the GoPro 5 Session, similar stats as the GoPro 5 Black (GoPro has 2.7k 60kfps)
24 computing cores — All of the sensors and cameras are powered by more computing power than has ever been seen in a consumer drone.
Tiny Controller, no controller — Think PS4. Or just control it from your phone, no controller needed.

True portability and flight safety for a pro aerial package. A separate backpack for your drone is now a thing of the past. I’ve felt this pain personally many times, and it’s a customer pain point that really speaks to existing drone owners to get them to switch, even if they like their current systems. I often carry my P4 or Solo instead of my Inspire Pro simply because I don’t have to check it, if I had a Mavic it would quickly become the system of choice. And Sense and Avoid is turning into a standard for enabling new pilots to take to the air safely. While these are important for me, they are even more important for new customers who’ve never owned a drone.

DJI has three distinct advantages that put them heads above GoPro’s Karma in the “drone features” department

1.Technology Integration
The number one qualm about the Karma, was that it simply didn’t have any new technology, or any of the current technology. It can’t avoid obstacles, can’t follow the user, no computer vision tracking etc. Mavic comes with the full suite.
Redundant Sense and Avoid Not only is this better than the Karma, its better than DJI and Yuneec’s existing Sense and Avoid options.
Gesture control. Take pics and fly with your hands.
Follow, with vision tracking. The drone can follow you, and do it with optical computer vision tracking. GoPro Karma can’t even follow the controller.

2.Features Users Want
27min flight time — 9 minutes more than Karma. Quite a nice touch if you want to capture anything complex, any ongoing activity, or any shot at a distance.
40mph sport mode — Racing is a thing, and flying for fun is a bonus for any user. Mavic takes this seriously.
Goggle Accessory — This is what customers want, an immersive experience, and making it easy to try that without a whole new pure racing platform is a fantastic addition. 1080p streaming video is icing on the cake.

3.Price
$749 if you just want to control Mavic with your phone.
$999 for the true full Mavic package

Hundreds less than the equivalent GoPro Karma kit, with a very low entry point (the whole Mavic camera drone w/ phone control is less than Karma without a camera).

How well does the sense and avoid work? — I’m betting pretty well… But this is their first attempt at this much tech in this small a package.
How well can DJI stabilize this lighter drone? They’ve come a long way with stabilization, but so has GoPro, and this is a new form factor.
How rugged is it? — If you go into Sport Mode and turn off avoidance, the Mavic is gonna crash, its the nature of drone racing… How well can it keep up with abuse?

Ground camera double usage. The stabilizer rig can be used on the ground, and the camera can be taken off, making it overall more universal to capture footage of your life. While it’s not a better drone in any way, it is an overall system, which likely makes more sense for someone who is dedicated to capturing multiple types of footage.

The Brand. No one does it better than GoPro, and DJI still can’t get their marketing together, even with a billion in revenue. They’re not doing enough to break through to the mainstream in a way that a normal brand would do, not to mention trying to compete with a juggernaut like GoPro.

The Hero 5. Stabilization, no case required and voice control on a ground system is tempting for many existing GoPro users to upgrade… Why not do it and get the whole drone package, versus getting that camera and another drone? Certainly makes video editing and capture easier.

Setting the stage. DJI’s biggest issue has always been that few really know about their brand and support it on a mainstream level. Their Phantom drone look and shape is ubiquitous, and the Phantom name has some hold, but DJI has a relatively unknown overall brand for the greater buying public, and with this product they aren’t leveraging their best brand asset, which is the white drone with it’s signature look and name.

Getting people stoked. Michael Perry did a great job with the DJI presentation, to a hall filled with people, but no one voraciously applauded or seemed surprised or stoked at their innovation the way that Woodman took the crowd of GoPro fans and lit them up for the Karma. These presentations matter, if you’re going to do them, give it the vibe of excitement, not the polite applause of your kids violin debut at a middle school.

GoPro summit. Where was Karma launched? In a scenic area with hundreds of pro GoPro users, who got to go out, fly the drone and create footage right after. My Instagram and Snapchat feeds were lit up with athletes, videographers and celebrities trying out Karma, and being stoked about it because they were in a great environment and love the GoPro brand. DJI isn’t even trying to compete on this level, and it shows.

Working the message at retail. GoPro owns retail relationships, and also has the brand that electrifies the average consumer. As petty as it might sound, at scale worldwide it really matters if a consumer walks into a store, asks about new drones, and is pointed to the GoPro drone, which will have better retail placement, and a better program for retail employees. The Mavic will be complicated to explain, with a brand name the consumers still don’t know.

Apple vs. Everyone. DJI’s best asset is Apple. Their placement in Apple stores (which is significant) is a great brand association, the ultimate product learning environment, and filled with their target customer. This was a great move with the P4, will also be great for the Mavic, but they need to take it farther with more new relationships.

Even with a far superior drone product (in my eyes at least), it will remain to be seen if DJI can gain enough public support and perception to build their brand, gain recognition for the Mavic product, and hit GoPro where it hurts: worldwide sales numbers.

Thanks for reading!