Scale and Growth The State of the Drone Market 2020: Infodron.es
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth
In August 2019, Bloomberg ran an article with the headline, “Drone Bubble
Bursts, Wiping Out Companies and Hammering VCs.” Less than three months
later, CNBC ran a video story with the headline, “Drones are growing into a
$100 billion industry.”
It begs the question: how could startups be failing in such a thriving industry?
The answer is complicated, but the Bloomberg piece turns to Kay Wackwitz,
founder and chief executive officer of the research group Drone Industry
Insights, to explain why 25 drone startups closed their doors in the
past decade.
“There was some irrationality around drones, a period of hype, driven by the
popularity of the hobby sector,” he says. “We’re getting past that and people
are coming back to reality.”
The Bloomberg article also notes that the industry in the U.S. has quickly
shifted away from an emphasis on hardware to a focus on software data,
intelligence, and analysis. The CNBC piece reports that the consumer sector
will make up just 17% of the drone market in 2020.
Clearly, the true potential for drones lies beyond hardware, hype, and the
consumer sector. Businesses, more than ever, are finding value in drone
software: in a recent DroneDeploy customer survey, nearly two-thirds of
respondents said that they use drones to improve operations and increase
productivity.
The winners in tomorrow’s drone industry will be the drone companies
that deliver true business value and ROI to a range of customers. Let’s take
a look at how we can expect drones and drone software to grow in 2020
and beyond.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 2
Today’s Business Challenges and How
Companies Currently Use Drone Software
In today’s always-on world, consumers have come to expect real-time
updates and insights. The growth of smartphones has empowered all of us
to communicate faster and gain timely access to information. Calendar and
productivity apps have helped us streamline our time. Google Maps helps us take
the most efficient route, and leave at the time we’ll miss the worst traffic. We’ve
come to expect speed and intelligence when it comes to our personal lives.
But this efficiency and optimization have lagged in the business world, where big
corporations can be slow to change and adopt new technologies. An MIT study,
for example, found that 63% of companies are too slow to change their
technology. Drones and drone software is growing rapidly but still is leveraged
by just a small percentage of companies.
But for the innovative
companies already using
drone software, they are
finding it has seemingly
endless applications that
drive quantifiable value.
Farmers are gaining a
more comprehensive
view of plant health
through drone imagery.
Construction companies
are monitoring project
progress in real-time,
detecting and correcting
errors before they
Figure 1. Plant Health map shown side-by-
side with record map on DroneDeploy. become worse.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 3
Facilities and maintenance teams use thermal imagery to catch water leaks
in roofs and to prioritize building repairs. Mining companies leverage drone
software to gain better stockpile analysis so they can accurately predict
inventory. Oil & Gas companies are able to monitor and inspect facilities without
shutting off production. Commercial and residential solar companies can identify
non-functioning panels and get them back up and running. And so on and so on.
The use cases for drone software are wide-ranging. And yet, the unifying theme
of drone software is that it provides unparalleled intelligence, insights, and
transparency to businesses, which in turn empowers them to work faster,
smarter, and safer.
In fact, a recent DroneDeploy survey of more than 140 customers found that
53% of respondents expected to increase their spend on drones and drone
software in 2020, compared to just 4.9% who thought it would decline.
Clearly, they’re seeing value from drone software.
Figure 2. 92% of respondents said they expect drones to become more common in their industry by 2020.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 4
From POCs to Scale and Growth
Our survey results and experience with customers suggest the market will
continue to grow and scale in the coming years. Companies at the leading edge
usually start their drone journey with one team member purchasing a drone,
mapping a site, and showing data to their colleagues. This can then trigger a
decision-maker to adopt a more formal proof of concept (POC). This steady
progression or “land and expand” approach for drone companies can lead to huge
adoption across teams and departments.
For many of DroneDeploy’s customers, the early adoption stage is over, and
drones are now becoming standard across farms, job sites, and other terrain. So
we anticipate scale and growth over the next five years as companies see value
and apply the technology to more business problems.
Figure 3. Users can export and share compliance reports within their organization using DroneDeploy
Value Add: How Drone Software is Driving ROI
So what is the value that drone software delivers? Now that we’ve got a sense
of the wide range of use cases, let’s take a deeper look at how drone software
delivers tangible ROI and bottom-line growth for businesses. In this section, we’ll
take a look at the benefits across several industries.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 5
Oil & Gas: Securing Pipelines
Oil & Gas companies need to monitor miles and miles of pipeline. Leaks, vandalism, and
natural elements can all prove costly. One consulting firm that works with Oil & Gas
companies saved 90% of clean up costs thanks to DroneDeploy, as they were able to
monitor miles of pipeline, detect leaks early, and prevent farmland from being
damaged. Another Oil & Gas company used DroneDeploy’s Linear Flight App to create
30% time savings by taking more direct routes and reducing the number of flights
needed to examine pipelines.
One consulting firm that works with
Oil & Gas companies saved 90% of
clean up costs thanks to DroneDeploy
Constructing Efficiency
Stiles Construction, a commercial real estate firm based in Florida, has been using
drones since 2015 to get better details on potential sites and monitor construction
progress. The company started using DroneDeploy to integrate with Procore, empowering
its staff to validate designs faster, reduce subcontractor risk, and enable stakeholders to
see visual updates of progress. Stiles estimates that they’ve saved $2,500 per project
through DroneDeploy.
Figure 4. Stiles Construction leveraged DroneDeploy and Procore to save analysis time and costs on each project.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 6
Clarifying Insurance Claims
Insurance companies are also turning to DroneDeploy to drive profits. A few
years ago, a fire did extensive damage to a quaint town on the French coast.
When the smoke cleared, 5 acres were burned and a $100 million housing
complex was destroyed. The insurance company couldn’t determine the
cause of the fire through airplane photographs (which weren’t detailed
enough) or from an on-the-ground inspection. The company turned to
drones and the move paid off: they were able to verify through DroneDeploy
that the fire origin was not due to their customer — saving the insurance
companies from a hundred million dollar claim.
Figure 5. Information collected on site, combined with DroneDeploy’s suite of analysis tools,
allowed inspectors to instantly estimate the volume of debris to be removed.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 7Keeping a Campus Safe
One Big Ten university started leveraging DroneDeploy in early 2019.
The facilities management team is responsible for overseeing 2,000 acres of
property across multiple campuses, maintaining hundreds of buildings, and
keeping more than 40,000 students safe on a daily basis. The university also uses
DroneDeploy to monitor its vast lawns and ensure they’re healthy. With 2,000
acres of property to manage, mow, and fertilize, DroneDeploy — with its deep
roots in agriculture — can monitor plant health and help the university
concentrate efforts and dramatically reduce costs. The university aims to track
year-over-year erosion and tree lean through DroneDeploy. This will bring even
more cost savings and campus security, as the university’s team will be able to
spot and address trees that could potentially fall and damage campus buildings or
harm students.
The management team uses DroneDeploy
to oversee 2,000 acres of property, maintain
hundreds of buildings, and keeps over 40,000
students safe on a daily basis.
Driving Hotel Efficiency and Savings
A leading international hotel chain leverages DroneDeploy to consistently keep
tabs on sites around the globe. This can range from potential build sites, existing
hotels that need maintenance, or construction progress of new hotels. Whether
it is monitoring a pool deck, looking at a roof, or surveying for a new site, it’s key
for the chain to have accurate and timely photography to keep guests safe and
executives informed. In the past, the chain regularly spent thousands of dollars to
fly executives to construction sites around the world and see the latest progress.
Other times they sent photographers on costly flights over sites to monitor
progress. Now, the chain uses DroneDeploy to instantaneously examine hotels
around the world from their HQ and save thousands of dollars in the process.
The uses are wide-ranging and will only expand in the future as companies
become more drone savvy.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 8The Future of Drones: How and Why
Businesses Will Maximize Use Cases
In the year ahead, you can expect more and more companies to experiment
with drones as a way to save them time and money, while gaining intelligence.
The companies that have already started using drone software will deepen their
adoption across new teams and departments. Companies in new industries will
implement drones and drone software programs. As these businesses expand,
their use and understanding of drones and drone software will only continue to
grow their capabilities. This will lead to further innovation in 2020 and beyond.
The next step we are poised to see in drones and drone software technology is
automation, where a drone is able to fly almost entirely on its own. So a farmer
who wants to take pictures of his field and examine plant health every day, for
example, currently would have to be present to pilot that route on a daily basis.
But soon, self-driving drones will be programmed to fly a consistent path on their
own, even taking off, landing, and charging itself autonomously.
It will go beyond just farms, though. In 2020, drones in autonomous docks will
be seen on construction and oil and gas sites. Enabled by advancing regulation,
with a click of a button, pilots will be able to launch a drone out of a dock to map
the world.
The next evolution of the drone industry is upon us: Yes, the consumer and
hobby sector may be slowing and some startups may not survive. But the
massive business opportunity for drones and drone software is just beginning.
© 2020 DroneDeploy The State of the Drone Market 2020: Scale and Growth | 9DroneDeploy is the leading drone software solution trusted by over 5,000 companies across a variety of industries, including construction, energy, agriculture, and mining. From drone fleet management to data analysis, DroneDeploy makes aerial data accessible and productive for everyone. Simple by design, DroneDeploy enables professional mapping, 3D modeling, and reporting from any drone on any device.
You can also read
