对于这家中国公司来说，天空才是边疆

作为全球民用无人机行业龙头，总部设在深圳的大疆创新迎来了一位新的“驾驶员”，总之至少是一位新的“联合驾驶员”。

这家生产出“精灵”和“御”等热门无人机的厂商宣布，已将电子产品行业资深高管罗镇华任命为公司总裁，接替大疆创始人汪滔负责日常运营。

汪滔是无人机爱好者，2006年在香港的学生宿舍里成立了大疆创新。他仍是公司首席执行官以及最大股东（持股远超其他股东），并将继续监督大疆的产品开发。大疆的高管指出，罗镇华升任总裁体现了汪滔返回实验室的意愿，他想重新定义并扩展大疆的技术，而技术正是大疆成为全球最大无人机厂商的根本因素。

汪滔在任命罗镇华的公告中表示：“大疆目前在全世界有超过1.1万名员工，在全球17座城市设有办事机构。随着全球业务的不断扩大，我们需要在经营方面增强管理团队的实力。”

大疆的精灵四轴无人机2013年问世，一经推出就备受爱好者和专业摄影师青睐，可谓消费级无人机行业的创立者。它的高端“悟”无人机近7磅（约3.15公斤）重，价格超过3000美元（19980元人民币），一直是航空摄影硬核爱好者的首选。

去年11月大疆推出了御Mavic Pro无人机，从而进入了一个比以前大得多的市场。这款紧凑型产品的重量不到2磅（约0.9公斤），支持4K分辨率，可连续飞行27分钟，有效控制距离达7公里，价格不超过1000美元（6660元人民币）。

大疆没有公布销售数据。但罗镇华表示，推出三天内收到的Mavic Pro订单是该公司预测的全月订单量的三倍。大疆征服了这个参与者众多的领域，其中不乏资金充裕的欧美竞争对手，包括总部设在加州圣马特奥的GoPro，后者未能按照承诺推出水平相当的无人机。

今年5月，大疆推出了“晓”无人机。它不像御飞的那么远，那么快，分辨率也没有御高，配备的电池较小，只能飞行15分钟。但“晓”只有易拉罐那么大，价格也只有500美元（3330元人民币）左右，而且可以用简单的手势进行控制。“晓”的销量同样远远超过大疆的预期。

罗镇华拒绝透露大疆下一款产品的详细情况。但他明确表示，大疆的策略是较低的价格和较高的销量。他说：“就连‘晓’的价格也不是那么亲民。我们想让产品有更亲民的价格，同时继续提供同样的顶尖技术，这样就能让更多的人享用我们的技术。”

要实施这样的策略，大疆就得快速扩大业务规模。罗镇华似乎是执行这项任务的理想人选——他在台湾大学和美国圣塔克拉拉大学获得工程学位，并曾在苹果公司、西门子、明基电通和富士康担任工程、运营和产品管理等高级职务。

罗镇华2015年加入大疆，此前他在富士康任职，这家台湾大型企业是iPhone的主要代工厂商。在富士康，罗镇华负责的业务部门有逾2.5万名员工。他进入大疆时，这家无人机公司的运营部门只有2200人。但罗镇华说，大疆在运营方面遇到的挑战远远超过富士康。大疆比富士康增长的快，而且产品周期要短得多——大疆的产品周期为3-6个月，而富士康为1年左右。无人机技术比手机复杂，而且无法准确预测新产品的需求。

大疆认为，如果可以把产品价格压到500美元（3330元人民币）以下，消费级无人机的市场就绝不会饱和。

调研机构Gartner预计，今年全球无人机销量将增至300万架，市场收入将达到60亿美元（399.6亿元人民币），比2016年上升34%。商用无人飞行器市场研究公司Skylogic Research估算，大疆在500-1000美元无人机市场处于领先位置，市场份额为36%，远远超过同类企业——排名第二的3D Robotics占有19%的市场份额。此外，由《连线》杂志前编辑克里斯·安德森领导的3D Robotics在几乎烧掉1000亿美元风投资金后，已经放弃了制造无人机的梦想。

3D Robotics前首席收入官克林·吉恩去年10月接受采访时说：“我们意识到，一家设在硅谷、以软件为主的公司和一家在中国的、强大的垂直整合制造企业进行竞争根本就是难上加难。”

本月早些时候，3D Robotics宣布它的Site Scan软件平台将和大疆进行整合，从而在图像-数据转换方面兼容大疆无人机。3D Robotics还发布了新的企业无人机数据平台，大疆则认为这个领域有非常多的增长机会。

大疆把目光投向企业无人机领域不难理解。Gartner估算，目前个人无人机占市场销量的90%以上，但只占市场收入的40%。罗镇华称，大疆刚刚开始探索房地产、采矿、搜救以及设备维保等行业使用无人机的途径。

今年2月大疆发布了经纬M200无人机，后者专门用于探查桥梁、输电铁塔等难以攀爬的建筑。罗镇华认为，企业无人机最有前途的领域之一是农业，在这个领域，每年都有许多人因喷洒农药而丧生，使用无人机则会让这项工作变得更加安全。同事们透露，以动手能力和讨厌成为焦点而著称的汪滔将监督这些产品的开发，同时关注其他发展机遇。8月6日，36岁的汪滔以他标志性的山羊胡+贝雷帽形象罕见地公开露面——他在深圳湾体育中心主持了大疆每年都承办的大学生机器人赛事——Robomaster机甲大师赛。参赛选手来自200多所高校，用来对战的机器人和无人机均由这些选手自行制作和编程。在一片闪光灯和漫天的彩色纸屑中，汪滔和深圳市政府官员把20万元人民币的巨大支票颁发给了获得胜利的华南理工大学团队。当镜头靠拢上来，得奖者在媒体面前摆出愉悦姿态时，汪滔的脸上闪过一丝笑意，然后静静地离他们而去。（财富中文网） 

译者：Charlie

审稿：夏林

The world's leading civilian drone company is getting a new pilot—or at least a new co-pilot, anyway.

Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI), the Shenzhen, China-based manufacturer of the popular Phantom and Mavic aerial drones, announced  that veteran electronics industry executive Roger Luo has been appointed president and will assume day-to-day operational responsibilities from founder Frank Wang.

Wang, the model plane enthusiast who founded DJI in his Hong Kong dorm room in 2006, will remain CEO and is (by far) the company's largest shareholder. He will continue to oversee DJI product development. Senior executives at DJI say Luo's promotion reflects Wang's desire to get back to the lab to refine and expand the technologies that helped to make DJI the world's biggest drone maker in the first place.

"DJI now has over 11,000 staff worldwide, with offices in 17 cities around the world," Wang said in a statement announcing Luo's appointment. "As we continue to expand our global footprint, we need to strengthen our management in the area of operations."

DJI's Phantom quadcopters, released in 2013, were an instant hit among hobbyists and professional photographers, and essentially created the consumer drone industry. The company's premium Inspire model, which weights nearly 7 pounds and costs upwards of $3,000, remains the drone of choice among hard-core aerial photography enthusiasts.

But DJI tapped a far larger market last November with the introduction the Mavic Pro, a compact drone weighing less than 2 pounds but offering 4K video resolution, flight times of up to 27 minutes and a control range of up to 7 kilometers—all for less than $1,000.

The company doesn't release sales data but Luo says that, within three days after releasing the Mavic, DJI had received three times more orders for the model than it had expected to sell the entire month. DJI vanquished a crowded field of well-funded U.S. and European competitors, including San Mateo, California-based GoPro, who were unable to deliver on promises to roll out comparable drones.

In May, DJI released the Spark, a drone that doesn't fly as far or as fast as the Mavic, offers video resolution that isn't quite as sharp, and uses smaller batteries that allow hang times of only 15 minutes. But the Spark is as small as a soda can, costs only about $500 and can be controlled with simple hand gestures. Sales for the Spark, too, are soaring well beyond DJI's expectations.

Luo declines to discuss specifics of DJI's next product release. But he makes clear that DJI's strategy will involve lower-prices and higher sales volumes. "Even the Spark's price is not so friendly for consumers," he said. "We want to have products with friendlier prices that still offer the same great technology so that our technology can be enjoyed by more people."

To deliver on that strategy, DJI will need to ramp up operations fast. Luo, who earned engineering degrees from National Taiwan University and University of California, Santa Clara, and has held senior engineering, operations and product management roles at Apple, Siemens, BenQ and Foxconn, seems ideally suited to the task.

Luo joined DJI in 2015 from Foxconn, the gaint Taiwanese company that is the primary supplier for Apple's iPhones. The business unit Luo oversaw at Foxconn employed more than 25,000 people. When he moved to DJI, the drone maker's operations division employed just 2,200 people. But Luo says the operational challenges at DJI are far greater than those he faced at Foxconn. DJI is growing faster than Foxconn, and its product cycles are much shorter—three to six months at DJI, compared to about a year at Foxconn. The technology for drones is more complicated than that of phones, and predicting demand for new products can be anybody's guess.

DJI is betting that if they can push the price below the $500 mark, the market for consumer drones isn't anywhere close to saturation.

Gartner says global drone sales will rise to 3 million this year, with market revenue growing to $6 billion, a 34% increase over 2016. Skylogic Research estimated recently that DJI was by far the market leader for drones in the $500 to $1000 price rather, with a 36% of the market. The number two spot was held by 3D Robotics, with 19 percent share. But that company, led by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, has abandoned its drone-making ambitions after burning through almost $100 billion in venture capital funding.

"What we realized is that it's just going to be inherently much more difficult for a Silicon Valley-based, software-focused company to compete against a vertically integrated powerhouse manufacturing company in China," Colin Guinn, 3D Robotics former chief revenue officer told Forbes last October.

Earlier this month, 3D Robotics announced that it would integrate its Site Scan software platform with DJI to make it compatible with their drones to convert images into data. 3DR also announced the launch of a new data platform for drones used by businesses, an area where DJI sees enormous opportunity for growth.

It's not hard to see why DJI would have its eye on the enterprise drone segment. Gartner estimates that currently personal drones account for more than 90 percent of the market in unit sales but represent only 40 percent of the market's revenue. Luo says DJI has only begun to identify the ways in which drones can be used in sectors such as real state, mining, search and rescue and equipment maintenance and repair.

In February, DJI unveiled its Matrice 200 series of drones which are specifically designed for inspecting bridges, electrical towers and other hard-to-access structures. Luo argued that one of the most promising areas for enterprise drone use would be in agriculture, where many people die each year spraying pesticides that could be more safely dispersed by aerial drones.Wang, famed for his love of tinkering and aversion to the spotlight, will oversee development of those and other growth opportunities, say colleagues. Over the weekend the 36 year-old founder, sporting his trademark goatee and golf beret, made a rare public appearance at the Shenzhen Bay Stadium to preside over "Robomaster," DJI's annual contest for college engineers. The competition pits student teams from more than 200 universities in combat against each other using robots and drones they build and program themselves. Amid a hail of bright floodlights and confetti, Wang, flanked by leaders of the Shenzhen city government, presented a giant check for 200,000 renminbi (about $30,000) to the winning team, a group from South China University of Technology University from Guangzhou. As the cameras closed in and victors posed jubilantly for press, Wang flashed a half smile, and quietly slipped away.