DJI to face serious challenger as Sony officially enters the drone market

Well, we all suspected it was happening at some point after patents started popping up a few months ago, but now it’s official. Sony is entering the drone market. The announcement comes with the teaser video above as well as a whole new section of their website dedicated to their future “Airpeak” drones  – expected in spring 2021.

While the patent earlier in the year looked like kind of a gimmicky drone, Sony says that “Airpeak will support the creativity of video creators to the fullest extent possible”, suggesting that they’re actually going to be taking filmmakers and content seriously with their new line of products. DJI won’t be happy.

Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation (“Sony”) today announced that it has launched a new project for drones in the field of AI robotics.

The recent proliferation of drones has contributed greatly to the delivery of previously unseen images, as well as to workflow efficiency and energy savings in the industrial sector. Sony has assigned the “Airpeak” brand to reflect its aspiration to contribute to the further evolvement and the creation of the unprecedented value through its imaging and sensing technology as well as 3R technologies (Reality, Real-time and Remote) in the drone area.

Airpeak will support the creativity of video creators to the fullest extent possible, aiming to contribute to the further development of the entertainment industry as well as to improved efficiency and savings in various industries. Airpeak will also promote this project to enable drone-use with the highest level of safety and reliability in the environments where this has been difficult in the past.

Sony will continue to post project-related information and obtain feedback from drone users through co-creation activities to prepare for the launch of the project in the spring of 2021.

The company soon plans to begin seeking for the partners in the professional space who can collaborate on the project.

Information regarding this project will be regularly updated at the following site

• Airpeak Website

Although Sony seems pretty solidly aimed towards creators, they do acknowledge the industrial benefits of drones in today’s world, too. And with it being Sony, they’ll no doubt have some lower-end consumer models coming at some point as well. Given Sony’s typical success in the markets they enter, this presents some very stiff competition for DJI, who has thus far seen a pretty solid dominance over the global drone market.

Right now, Sony says they’re consulting with actual drone users and gathering feedback to prepare for the official launch of the Airpeak project in spring 2021. Exactly what drones we may see at that time or how rapidly Sony plans to catch up to the range that DJI offers is unknown.

Other than that, there isn’t much news, but it’s exciting to finally see a solid challenger in the drone market that has the kind of global reach and power to take on a company like DJI.

[via Sony Alpha Rumors]