Couple of images posted to social media.
As DJI are threatening with a 360 camera, is insta360 about to launch drones?
Hmm. It’s possible, but they have no expertise in drone tech. The first picture looks to me like a DJI Mini in a stripey bag deliberately chosen to break up the outline of it’s contents, the protruding motor & props seem identical, and the second picture is, um, what exactly? My take is that it is a badly spray-painted Avata bodyshell sitting on top of a DJI-branded bag (you can see the logo on the bag not properly blacked out, but it appears to have been crudely glued to the top of the bag. What is holding it up at the back?
The camera cannot lie, but photographers can…
I’m going to sound like a DJI sales rep now, and I’m not. Nobody anywhere in the world, even China is anywhere close to rivalling DJI in the consumer/hobby drone field. There are firms like Potensic that come close by copying DJI’s methods as far as they can, but Occusync is such a quantum advance over the wi-fi connectivity that the competion has to rely on that DJI are probably 5 years ahead of the field; 5 years is geological time in this game. Even if they are outright banned in the US, they will still completely dominate the world market until somebody produces a superior product at a comparable or lower RRP. Insta360 would have to bring something completely revolutionary to the party to stand any chance. Basically, not gonna happen.
There is no doubt vastly superior technology available to military customers from manufacturers other than DJI, with connectivity, guidance, & telemetry probably overlapping with cruise missile tech, (but they’d have to kill you if they told you about it) and with such drones being widely used in the Ukraine/Russia bunfight and in Syria, probably other conflicts as well, with their tech being closely analysed from wreckage, it is only a matter of time before such tech trickles down to the consumer drone market in a restricted form. This could see DJI unseated from the top position eventually, but they clearly prioritise R&D and will be in a good position to fight back.
Not saying DJI drones are perfect, I have several misgivings about them and their products, but they are *very * good and tick most of the boxes. I would be reluctant to buy a drone from another manufacturer. I suspect the future will bring us some controlled relief from the VLOS restrictions, and longer ranges will need better-than-wifi connectivity.
They are manufactured in China with suspect ties to the government. 
Well, yes, but there are other Chinese drone manufacturers, with or without ‘suspected links to the Chinese government’. Some are regrettably producing dangerous cheapo shit for Temu; I exclude Potensic from that! None of them rival DJI, but it is fair to say, I submit, that China is in general a centre of excellence for this sort of tech and it’s production, and has long surpassed Japan. A future rival to DJI might well originate from China.
Not suspected
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Some more titbits on X on the insta360 drone
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