Inexpensive South Korean Sports Drones Will Be Released in 2016

Inexpensive South Korean sports drones that cost between $172 and $258 (200,000 KRW and 300,000 KRW) will be released in 2016.

They are ideal for ‘D-Sports’ that is recently receiving spotlight for drone racing, acrobatic flight and others. It is interesting to see if South Korean products will settle in new markets that are emerging due to low price of products and diversification.

Drogen (CEO Lee Heung Shin) made an announcement that it will increase number of product line of sports drones from 2 to 6 by 2016. Drones that are currently being sold by Drogen are part of ‘Lobit’ series and they have diagonal lengths of 350 mm and 300 mm. ‘Lobit 350’ and Quad copter ‘Lobit 300’ are optimized for acrobatic flight and high-speed flight respectively and they are being sold for $516 (599,000 KRW) and $430 (499,000 KRW) respectively.

Drogen is planning to release new products next year as a separate brand from ‘Lobit’. It currently decided on concept and size of products and is discussing about a name of brand. These products are smaller and cheaper than current products, and Drogen is targeting popularization of sports drones by using new materials and selling air-frame and parts separately.

Lobit 350 (left) and Lobit 300 that were developed by Drogen. They are sports drones that are optimized for acrobatic flight and high-speed flight

New drones that are for high-speed flights will come out in sizes of 250 mm, 200 mm, and 150 mm and they will cost between $172 and $258. Because their sizes are smaller than current Lobit series, people will be able to control them in narrow spaces. Drogen is currently discussing about a method of releasing new drone for acrobatic flight at a size of 450 mm. By doing so, products will become more diversified and prices will be reduced by half.

Because Drogen is selling air-frame and parts separately, one can decorate a drone to his or her personality. Drogen is doing this because it is targeting D-Sports and markets for hobbies instead of filming or industrial purposes. Users can assemble drones by picking an air-frame cover on top of frame and wings (prop) by themselves and they can assemble ‘Personalized Drones’ according to their personalities.

To make sales official, Drogen will open up an official homepage and release Smartphone app. Drogen will make them so that they will guide users to products’ information and help them to even make payments. It will also place Youtube videos on all of screens so that consumers can watch videos on flights on themselves and choose products accordingly.

Drogen is planning to open official homepage and app by latest January of 2016 when it is attending CES in the U.S. People can look at all of finished products, air-frames, accessories, and parts on app and homepage. Drogen will target everyone from beginners to manias with its plan.

“It is not too difficult to develop products that are more popular since Lobit series that are currently being sold have already enough high performance.” said a person associated with Drogen. “By releasing more popular products with an ability to become more personalized at a really low price, we will expand culture of sports drones and D-Sports.”

Staff Reporter Song, Junyoung | [email protected]