Federica Laricchia
Research expert covering the global consumer technology industry
Get in touch with us nowDrones are at a stage where they are still continuously evolving, as well as workable laws to regulate their use. Overall, the global drone market is forecast to grow considerably in the coming years, reaching a market size of 4.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2028. Moreover, drones are deployed in many countries worldwide, with China and the United States leading the market.
Consumer drones are the closest to us
To name but a few, major drone market segments include defense, commercial, public safety, law enforcement, and logistics, to name but a few. However, consumer drones are those we are in closest contact with. This type of drone is often small and uses less complex systems to control and navigate compared to drones used in the defense and commercial sectors. One of the major drone firms worldwide is DJI (Da-Jiang Innovations), a Chinese company headquartered in Shenzhen. DJI manufactures some of the most popular consumer drone product lines from basic to advanced models starting from 350 U.S. dollars. The latest development in the consumer drone sector is FPV (first-person view) racing, where the pilot has an immersive flying experience through augmented reality (AR) glasses that display the live view through a low-latency drone camera.Where else are drones commonly used?
The rapid evolution of drones began with the development of defense technologies to remotely pilot an aircraft with weaponized and non-weaponized systems. Critical for deployment in environments that are deemed dangerous for human-piloted planes, these are mainly larger drones weighing several kilograms. Today, smaller drones weighing under a kilogram are used by some government agencies monitoring a variety of operations, from mapping in precision agriculture to monitoring or assisting complex situations, such as security threats attended by the police.Commercial drones with industrial applications help monitor telecommunication towers or utilities like water lines, electricity grids, and telephone networks, as well as maintain or aid site inspections in mining operations. Nowadays, such commercial drones are implemented as prototypes in the logistics and transportation sector, from moving cargoes to transporting people in air taxis.
