DJI, the world’s largest consumer drone manufacturer, will be opening a retail store in Shenzhen, China in December. The Wall Street Journal reported the news about DJI’s flagship retail store.
The store will reportedly be about 8,611 square feet, and is DJI’s biggest retail investment to date. The drone company also operates small airport shops and pop-up stores, but most of its sales come through its website.
The store is designed to get “more people to see and touch our products,” according to a DJI spokesman. DJI says more major stores are a future possibility.
The store will house all of DJI’s products such as the Phantom 3 Standard, Matrice 100 and Inspire 1.
DJI is working with Walmart on testing drone delivery services. Walmart wants to test drones for grocery pickup, a service it recently expanded and plans to offer in 43 markets next year. Walmart also wants to test drone delivery for customers at Walmart facilities and in small residential neighborhoods after obtaining permission from those living in the flight path. The test would see if a drone could be deployed from a truck “to safely deliver a package at a home and then return safely to the same.”
In other DJI news, Brendan Schulman, the company’s VP of policy and legal affairs, will be making a “major policy announcement” on behalf of DJI at the Drone World Expo on Nov. 17 at 3:30 PM PST. Updated: DJI announced a partnership with AirMap for a new geofencing system called Geospatial Environment Online (GEO).
No word yet on what the announcement will be, but DJI is on the 25-member drone registration task force that is reportedly recommending mandatory registration on all drones that weigh more than 9 oz. The task force also recommended users register by entering their name and address into a government-run website or mobile application. Users also will have to attach a “legible” registration number to their drone.
For the anti-registration folks, and there’s a lot of you, here are 10 drones you won’t have to register.
The recommendations reportedly are a “compromise” as drone manufacturers and hobbyists wanted only heavier drones to require registration. However, users would have had to follow a more cumbersome registration process designed by the FAA. So the two sides met in the middle – lower weight threshold with an easier registration process.
The FAA hopes to have drone registration in place by the holiday season, so surely more companies will be popping up looking to help you with drone registration.
