Colin Snow
Drone Tech Winners and Losers at the Precision Aerial Ag Conference 2014
Last week my colleague Mitch Solomon and I were privileged to be in the company of more than one thousand farmers in rural Decatur, IL, for the two-day Precision Aerial Agriculture Show 2014 (PAAS 2014). Mitch covers five key takeaways from the show in his post about the event – including the most salient one: … Read more
Five Reasons the AUVSI Got Its Drone Market Forecast Wrong
My guest blogger is Mitch Solomon of Aironovo and this is an excerpt from his post which we developed together. You can find his post here. —- Since its publication in early 2013, AUVSI’s The Economic Impact of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the United States has become the gold standard forecast for the commercial drone … Read more
Film or Farm: Which is the Bigger Drone Market? – Part 2
This is Part 2 in a two-part series that summarizes my views on why video/film/cinema – not agriculture and farming — will be the largest driver of sUAS commercial businesses. In Part 1, I explore thoughts on the market for video/film/cinema, and below I outline why I believe agriculture will lag in market uptake. The … Read more
Film or Farm: Which is the Bigger Drone Market? – Part 1
This is Part 1 in a two-part series that summarizes my views on why video/film/cinema – not agriculture and farming — will be the largest driver of sUAS commercial businesses. In this part I explore thoughts on the market for video/film/cinema, and below I outline why I believe film and video will lead in market … Read more
Which is Better: Open Source or Proprietary Drone Software?
Just like Google vs. Apple When the Apple iPad first appeared on the market in 2010, I didn’t jump in to buy one. I didn’t own an iPhone, I had a company-issued Blackberry, so I wasn’t motivated. Besides, I figured there would be a better model a year or so later. So I waited. By … Read more
Will Future FAA Rules Kill The Small Drones Market?
I just released the findings of my two-month survey studying the impact of FAA rules on small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) in the U.S. You can read the press release here. Among the many insights I got from the research, these two are the most significant: Unfavorable rules will disintegrate an already fragile market for … Read more
Drone Businesses: Three Social Media Platforms You Can’t Afford To Ignore
For some the thought of using Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn for their small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) business seems, well, just wrong. What good are they? Aren’t they just platforms for people who want to share what they had for breakfast? It’s not my audience. These social networks seem like a lot work for … Read more
Do FAA Rules Hurt Your Small Drone Business?
Confused by the FAA’s small drone regulations? Feeling choked as a business? As you know, the FAA declares they govern *all* airspace, even the 400 feet above ground in which you fly everything from a paper airplane to a kite to a remote-controlled kit-built airplane and, yes, your multirotor drone. But FAA regulations are being … Read more
The Business of Drones: A Tale of Two Cities
The year was 1775. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the … Read more
The Democratization of Aerial Photography
From earliest times, humans have held a fascination with the “bird’s eye” view from above. Therefore it’s not surprising that, not long after the invention of photography, pioneers began to turn their attention to the aerial view. The first to successfully accomplish this feat was Gaspar Felix Tournachon or “Nadar” in 1858 when he photographed … Read more