Citing savings due to larger-scale production following an expansion into 22 countries and over 2,000 retail locations, 3D Robotics has dropped the price on its popular and well-designed Solo drone, as well as on the matching Solo gimbal. The Solo drone captured a wide audience with the help of a flashy launch video that introduced the product about a year ago, in addition to its fresh, modern design. Today, you can get the Solo for just $799 and/or add a gimbal to your kit for $199, down from yesterday's price of $999.95 and $399.95, respectively.
The 3DR Solo features many of the same features found on today's most popular drone systems, including app-supported fly-by-wire and follow features with many more customizable types of flight plans. With the ability to add your own camera, such as a GoPro, the Solo also enables a lot of flexibility that other companies, such as DJI, have chosen to do without, opting instead for their own, built-in camera modules.
While the price drops are nice to see, it could also be argued that they are simply necessary in order to stay competitive in the market. The influx of both professional-level and cheaper consumer drone models at a variety of attractive price points is putting pressure on all manufacturers to keep costs down while offering more features than ever before.
What do you think of the new price? Does it change your mind on the Solo? Or do you just feel like they were charging too much before?
DJI Phantom 4 is here. So, expect more price drop I guess.
I'm curious to see how these fare compared to DJI's offerings. They are starting to get a bad reputation from professionals for bugs (google "flip of death") and non-replaceable parts.
I'm most curious to see how the market will change once GoPro releases their "Karma" drone, since very little is known about it. Different models, etc.
The reference to "2001: A Space Odyssey" is great!