Originally planned to Mavic Pro in the middle of October delivery, order only began on October 21, shipment. This is not a huge delay, particularly with some industry counterparts, this is a huge event. But many DJI customers are still waiting patiently for their delayed Mavic Pro and have no idea when it will arrive – despite having paid around $1,000 up front. Clearly, this isn’t an ideal situation for anyone involved. Thousands of customers around the world are frustrated at a perceived lack of communication from DJI, while the company is obviously straining under the weight of more demand than it accounted for.
So it looks like a simple case, too much demand outweighed the suppliers. At least, that is before Thursday in an article published Gizmodo hypothesis. The piece suggests that something more is going on behind the scenes; that the apparent dispatch of Mavic Pros on the 21st was small in number and simply a move to “comfort the market”. The drone industry equivalent of looking busy while your boss walks past.
Gizmodo pointed to a leaked email from DJI that reads:
The truth is, that is only a very small quantity of it released to comfort the market. (Please make this confidential, just for you dealers.)
Please try your best to convince your customers to stick with you, don’t cancel their preorders. IF they head to DJI official store for it now, they will have to wait much much longer to get it because there are hundreds of thousands of preorders in line on DJI official store now and they will have to take care of it for the whole globe.
Sorry for the inconvenience and I will try my best to ship out orders as soon as possible starting from Oct. 25th.
On the surface, this will concern for bookers and average of loyal customers. Delay is the same thing. These things happen, of course. But cover it with a token gesture is another.
This all just adds to the speculation that the delayed Mavic Pro has is a sign that something has gone wrong in production or that last-minute tweaks have been needed. The fact that over 1,000 customers have resorted to adding their delivery information on a communal spreadsheet perhaps shows exactly how effective and informative communications from DJI have been.
Spreadsheet according to the time of this writing, 1028 customers in the world only 64 received their Mavic Pro freight information. Obviously, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these figures. Nor can we say that it’s representative of a global trend. People still in the dark are much more likely to place their details on the spreadsheet, after all. But what we can say is that it’s all a bit of a mess.
DJI’s latest response to the delayed Mavic Pro
We cannot guarantee that the above email or the authenticity of its contents, as the average fan, the last thing we want to do is fans speculative flame. So we got in touch with someone who can help put things straight: Adam Lisberg, DJI’s head US spokesman and corporate communication director.
First up, we asked if there was any truth in the suggestion that a small number of Mavic Pros have been dispatched “to comfort the market”. In response Lisberg was unequivocal. “No,” he said. “As we ramped up the production line in our factory, we dispatched Mavic Pros because people were already ordered it, and in the past week, we transport as much as possible, as much as possible. We have a lot of orders to fill, we are trying to, we can fill them.”
DJI has never introduced a product that generated such intense demand for pre-orders.” – Adam Lisberg, DJI
We asked Lisberg why the company wasn’t prepared for global demand of the Mavic Pro, and to what extent a rush of pre-orders could have been anticipated. “We never disclose sales figures, but I can safely say that DJI has never introduced a product that generated such intense demand for pre-orders,” he said. “We will use it as a learning experience that helps us measure how to meet the needs of the upcoming products. For our clients because we intend to continue to produce remarkable products.”
A lot of customer dissatisfaction on delay Mavic Pro, but still don’t know what has happened to their goods. Reese’s agreed a problem here. “Clearly, we have not been able to meet our customers’ expectations. We ask for their patience as we work as quickly as possible to satisfy all their orders.”
Next, we asked Lisberg about the impact of increasing competition in the market, and whether it causes manufacturers to overstretch, launching products and setting shipping deadlines earlier than is ideal. Both the delayed Mavic Pro and the GoPro Karma have had setbacks, so is there a connection here as two giants battle to outdo each other?
Lisberg was quick to deny that the timing of the Mavic Pro announcement was based on the actions of competitors. “In fact,” he said, “it was based on our own aggressive estimates of when it would be ready. We introduce new products to set up their own aggressive schedule, because we intend to continue to serve as the market leader in innovation, not because we are trying to respond to anyone.”
We are working extremely hard to make up where we fell short” – Adam Lisberg, DJI
Now it is hard to say Mavic Pro will affect how the reputation of the average delay. On the one hand, the company’s new global demand of unmanned aerial vehicle only when people see how long the queue growth. But on the other hand, customers like to keep informed and feel care – which seems to not like this.
Lisberg said that “DJI is well aware that we do not meet our original delivery term, in doing so, we don’t meet our customer’s expectations. We are working hard, and make up for our vacancy, and continue to work hard for our customers bring incredible technological advances, and open the unmanned flight in the world.”
