DJI's innovation ability changes China's manufacturing image. Is Silicon Valley afraid?

Chinese manufacturing has always been regarded as a non-innovative ability synonymous with the outside world, but DJI has used its own practical actions to refute this argument. In response, Thomas Ricker, a longtime contributor to the US technology media TheVerge, wrote an article analyzing the efforts made by DJI to change China's inherent image.

The following is the main content of the article:

In early 2012, DJI Innovation Technology released its first drone kit "Flamewheel". The consumer orientation of this product is a super fan, because the product also requires a lot of assembly work after purchase. In December 2012, Dajiang released the first "Phantom" drone, and the emergence of this product has also changed everything successfully.

Since DJI has been accustomed to working behind the scenes, the company’s first elf drone has not even been tagged by DJI’s logo. There is only a small removable label on the body. However, this wizard drone quickly became popular around the world after it was released.

FrostAndSullivan analyst Michael Blades said: "They almost subverted the entire industry with this product."

It should be said that DJI’s first Genie drone has sufficient performance to attract professionals, and it is very easy for beginners to get started. And it does not require manual assembly, but also has good endurance and stability

"This product really narrows the distance between toys and professional tools," Brades said.

In fact, Dajiang’s entrepreneurial journey is similar to that of many American startups. You can even simply and crudely replace the "hot wheels" in the above paragraph with Apple's "Apple I" and replace the "elvish" drones with "Apple II." "Then what you see is one of the most famous corporate innovation stories in American history." But after all, Dajiang is not a U.S. company. It is a Chinese technology company and this may give Silicon Valley a little bit of anxiety.

For example, GoPro, a sports camera manufacturer, recently entered the drone market and launched a collapsible Karma drone. However, this highly anticipated drone unexpectedly lacked the two main functions that fans hoped for, namely the anti-collision and follow-up modes. In contrast, the new Mavic Pro folding drone launched by DJI not only possesses the functions that Karma lacks, but also adds the latest gesture control function, which allows the user to draw the arm to draw the attention of the drone and then send a signal to it. It follows the user, and the prices are almost the same.