Parrot Disco - the most USELESS drone ever! 

That I didnt know! Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a smart adaption in the marketing. It makes perfect sense to try to target a segment that isnt already a fortified hill.

No it isnt they create a new segment but its look like they dont know it then.

@@MattiasAllring Also don't forget, they are not the only ones that made a wing drone, and there are countless of vtol winged craft. It is not that loud, check your prop balance. If you decide to get rid of it let me know, unless shipping is to high.

@@tuttoto you do realize that this isn't my video, right?

@@tuttoto lol what vtol plane is it? Can you tell me its name? Really wish to get one.

I got a 4g lte and battery mod and i never have problems to land anywhere so i dont knlw what this man is talkin about

@@lilpumpskrt5449 i know if you call the disco the most useless drone ever, and having issues you probably shouldnt be flying

@@christopherlee3045 i fly fpv qwads so i dont use it often

Lilpump Skrt I wasn’t talking about you, I was talking about the dude in the video bro.

@@christopherlee3045 yes yes yes, you are wright, totally agree with you

Dustin Dunhill. The best!

YESSSSSSS!

Here I am Dezember 2021… just bought a disco…

@@sanacca how is the experience going?

@@UserBR1010 superb 👍

True, but deploying all those DIY mods are hardly achieved by any substantial share of users. I get that it is an appealing product for techies, but that is just a too small segment to sustain the product. Unless Parrot figure out how to reach the broader layers of consumers, there will never be a Disco 2.

@@MattiasAllring True! 👍🏾

@@MattiasAllring DJI should buy them out and come out with a Parrot 2 .lol

The same mods on my disco, with them this drone just dont have competition and its awesome i love it. my next mod solar pannels to even longer fly and i now it works, crazy.

Yep... pretty stable aircraft. I have amazing distance and video... this guy doesn’t experiment much..

Yeah, that could be a segment to approach. What are the key needs of a ”cruiser” and why is the Disco the best match for those needs? Why would a ”cruiser” choose Disco over, say, a Phantom 4 or Mavic pro?

I guess long flight times, long range, and a view like you’re in the cockpit of a passengers plane. A Mavic or a Phantom gives you more the feeling of beeing a passenger in a balloon (well, a really fast balloon...) Dustin Dunhill made some video’s about the Disco I believe

@Agent К_видео Yes

@Agent К_видео I've seen his videos, because of his videos, I converted my Disco into 4G LTE. You are right, all those flights beyond line of Sight in the USA are illegally performed. That's why I try not to go that far, although I'm guilty of having flown BLS sometimes... Have a great evening my friend! Greetings from Douglas, Arizona 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

@@MattiasAllring because quadcopters are not effecient and they are not very speedy or reliable. Quadcopters are better for aerial photography

You just explained in your own words why the Disco failed on the market: 1. ”...you need to fly and land it in suitable terrain” 2. ”...before you hit the land button you need to... [do 90% of a normal landing procedure]” Thats why it failed on the market in a nutshell. It IS a cool drone. I do not argue with you on that. I have no plans of selling mine. But I stand by my point that it is a pretty useless alternative for what most drone owners want to do. Techies doing 4G mods are just a too small segment to commersially sustain such an ambitious product as the Disco. Unless Parrot figure out how to redesign the Disco into a drone that can capture one of the larger segments, there will never be a Disco 2. Thats all I am saying :-)

Dear bauhaus. Your logic has one flaw, that is exactly what this video is about: a sledgehammer, a 200mm lens, a microwaver and all other things you mention are all commmersially successful product with a clear market segment and use case. The Parrot Disco is, in contrast, a commersial failure lacking a clear target segment and use case. Before you jump to the conclusion that it is unfair to explain why it failed to capture 4 of the large market segments - try instead to explain what segment you think it is designed for and why it failed to deliver sales volume. My professional opinion as a product strategist is that it was not developed with a specific customer segment in mind, and that that is the cause of the market failure. It was designed around itself, not to a specific customer need i.e. Product Centric Design. The result is a high quality product that nobody needs.

There is no reason to be rude, bauhaus. The reason we come to diffrent conclusions is because we use diffrent scales. You reason Product Centric, I reason Customer Centric. If you work with design you should really read up on the difference. Yes, it is correct that the Disco does what it promesis to do. I do not suggest that the Disco is low quality, quite the opposite (apart from the packaging). It is the Discos high quality in relation to low market success that make this drone so interesting from a product strategy perspective. I can respect that the fan base of the Disco gets upset when they feel I am being unfair, but the commersial truth is that their view is commersially neglectable. Why? Because they where too few prepared to pay to little. It is an undisputable FACT that the Disco didnt sell. Yes, the Disco does most of what it promised, but from a strategic Customer Centric perspective that was obviously the WRONG PROMISE. This video is not a review of product quality, this is a analysis of a historically undisputably failed product strategy.

Bauhaus. Your personal attack has been removed. Do not bother to post any more comments if you cannot communicate in a civil manner.

bauhaus Correct, I am just stating my opinion! It is possible that I am wrong! Possibly beeing wrong is not rude, as it is not rude of you to not agree and possibly also beeing wrong. Rude is to engage in ad hominem arguments, attacking the person behind a thesis, instead of the thesis. This is an interesting topic to debate and there is no reason for any of this to get personal. The best counter arguments to the video has been pinned at the top so that everyone can see it.

Niclas Horn Yeah, the setting was the best I had to compare to the setting of the official promo video with a bunch of noobs flying of a rock in the wild: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m1Fpq4inefg.html

My advice is that landing the Disco is very similar to landing a real plane. My misstake was assuming that the whole final leg would be autonomous once the button is pressed. Obviously, its just the flare that is autonomous - so you still have to do 90% of the landing yourself. A DJI drone will land at your feet at the press of a button, which is why that is what the big segment of beginners is going for. The Disco is, from a market perspective, a curiosity that didnt fit any significant segment. 95% of the angry comments here are from guys running range tests with 4G-mods that 99,9% of the market would never engage in, for various reasons. The Disco is cool - I do not dispute that! However it is useless to the general market, because it does not have the right properties to fit any of the major market segments. Thats why it was a commersial failure.

Where can you get the mods needed for extra range and battery life?

R L I got the 4G mod kit for mine a couple years ago from UAVPAL.Com or you can still get everything u need from EBay

I think we might use the term ”Product” diffrently. Disco has some fabulous technologies. It was indeed ahead in its nieche (and probably still is, since nobody else seems to want to go that direction). It is objectively the most handsome drone ever made. Those are all cool technologies/features we can agree on (if we dont confuse these features with real user needs). But claiming that the Disco delivers ”amazing footage” is just very far from the truth by any standard. Nobody with any understanding of photography would agree with such a claim. The dynamic range is rubbish, the resolution below average, the stabilizing software a joke. That is why 99% of videos of Disco is not scenery, but range tests flying straight from A to B. You just cant make good videos with it!

Thats exactly my point! The Disco could have been a great success if only product management first would have decided whom it is for, and then made sure to tick all the relevant boxes for that specific market segment. Too bad that there will probably not be a Parrot 2. With proper product management I think that defeat could be turned into success.

it is rocket science if you're trying to land it near powerlines, trees, on very rough terrain where the camera is likely to be damaged. The best use case is in big open fields where you can use linear landings with waypoints taking into account wind direction where you don't even have to control it, and it lands perfectly every time.

& Paparatzzi.

Look how Parrot markeded the Disco (link) - flying from a cliff, capturing amazing stable videos. There are not any flat grass fields near any such scenes. The place I chose as location I think is relevant as reference. I was landing headwind (have a real pilot licence for real planes) so I got that part of the basics covered. The test was to see if it is realistic that a noob (or anyone else) can unpack the drone in a similar setting as the commersial and get similar results. I think I have proven that that is not the case and the drone will dissapoint anyone inspired by the commersial. Hand catch was just a fun thing to try, not a requirement. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m1Fpq4inefg.html

@@MattiasAllring I do not disagree with you entirely, only I think you were "noobier" than necessary. All Disco owners I´ve seen on the forums seem very keen to pick up advise and learn how to use the plane safely. What really is against the Disco is the short range from factory. That can be improved with the Uavpal 4G modification. Technically the Disco is a marvellous machine, but for your reasons probably, it failed in the market.

Happy to hear that you are happy with your Disco, Jorge! Mapping land and crops seems to be a good use, as pointed out earlier in the comments by another viewer. There is even a specialized version of Disco released for farmong, is that the one you use? It seems that after Parrot failed to get sales volumes in the big segmets of leisure droning, they refocused into niche markets. Sounds like the right move to me. :-)

@@MattiasAllring Unfortunately, Parrot stopped producing the Disco Pro Ag, and they created the bluegrass parrot for agriculture. The Disco Pro Ag is too expensive to be used only in land exploration, so the simple version of Disco is the best drone for my activity, and that's the one I'm using.

Thank you :-)

I agree alot with what you say, Kamil. If the upgrades would have been supported, simple to install and sold through Parrot in same way as Apple App Store, then the product could have been much more successful. Parrot opened up to 3rd party development, but failed to exploit what came out of it to open the market. Again - poor Product Management.

I hope you love it. Having said that, personally I would say that DJI goggles offers a way, way more submerging experience, having superior resolution, while also beeing easier to fly, suitable for noobs. To instead maximize flying experience, a normal FPV-wing or race quad that is not limited in banking would offer way more flying experience than the Disco. But thats just my opinion, let me know what you think after flying it. :-)

Did you ever try a race quad? That is a killer flying experience that has attracted a lot of people used to RC. Often race quads and RC planes are just diffrent sections of the same RC club.

@@MattiasAllring no, I kind of stopped the hobby due to a lack of time when quadcopters were just beginning to take over the FPV scene. I'll look into them but I still think I'm more a fixed wing guy. To each their own I guess.

Update, I flew my new Parrot yesterday evening and it's absolutely rock solid. I went out to 2km's without a problem, very clean video link. The Parrot cruises fast and shoots very stable video. Videoquality could have been a bit sharper but at least it's as stable as shooting from a tripod. I flew 30 minutes and still had 40% battery juice left. Flying is a lot less exciting than my old RC Planes because of the stabilization and the feeling that you're not in control of the plane but it's also very relaxing. Like you're just along for the ride. In fact, I didn't even have to touch the throttle stick. If you climb, the Parrot automatically uses more thrust, if you dive, the Parrot automatically reduces thrust or stops the engine. It may get boring after a while but at least it works, it's stable and it's safe. It's also very energy efficient and you can climb to high altitudes and just soar forever. And take off was also trouble free. Just toss it in the air and it flies to 40 meters and starts circling, waiting for you to be ready to take over. I'm sure everybody with minimal RC experience can fly a Disco. It's too bad the Disco failed because of bad marketing choices. This platform could have been a real winner. I'm very happy with it and hope I'll be able to keep it in good shape for years :-)

I agree with most of what you say exept two things: 1.Video is very unstable compared to normal gimbal equipped drones - even the cheapest low end simple two axis gimbal drones, such as a Spark toy drone blows the Disco out of the water on image stabilization. If you need stable video - buy a normal drone. 2. Landing is nowhere near as easy as starting and flying. Easy compared to an RC-plane, maybe. But still requiring way much more flying skills than normal drones. If you are a beginner and are not dead set on a wing - start with a normal drone.

It is interesting how much awesome mods there seems to be. Too bad Parrot didnt manage to leverage all this creativity into sales figures. I guess whats missing is how to bridge it too the masses. I speculate that if the mods would have been plug n play and sold through Parrot it might have changed the fate of the product. What do you think?

The Disco is Drone (see the definition) and it was targeted vs the same general market (see the commersial). It was not commersially successful. This video is analyzing WHY. In short, Parrot obviously didnt think through what the market needed and how to package their product towards that. One might go as far as saying the fixed wing approach was wrong (thats probably what Parrot thinks today), but I am not sure of that. All we know for sure is that it failed as it was designed. I would speculate that it could have been successful with a wing design if it had been more focused on a specific segment. As it is, it ticks 80% of the requirements for many segments, instead of ticking 100% of the requirements for one segment. Simply put, thats why it failed. Not because its a wing design and not because of the price point.

The tech is cool - I agree with that! The Disco has impressive features! Modded it can be even more impressive. However, as a PRODUCT it is pretty useless, as it is not really aimed at the needs of any substantial group of users. Disco was the best choice for very few -> low sales -> low profit -> discontinued -> there will be no Disco 2

@@MattiasAllring '

Best for you is not the definition of best product. It needs to be best for a significant market segment to be a good product. You obviously do not understand that a product needs to make money to be successful. It can only do that by selling. It needs to sell a lot to be successful. It will not sell a lot if it is not the best option for a lot of people. Disco is not the suitable choice for most peoples needs. Therefore it did not sell and Parrot discontinued the failed product. Despite cool features and small fan base of nerds.

you can do cinematic with fixed wing ;) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Llq46sjFUdI.html

To land you have to pilot it down to about 10 meters and pull back on throttle and lower its altitude gradually before hitting the land button. You need at least a clear area , just like a plane needs when landing etc

But hey you make interesting videos. For that I subscribed. P.s I caught it once lol. 😝

I agree that the the price tag was a problem, but still it was roughly on par with a Phantom 4 drone. Naturally, hard dumping the price sold units. What we dont know is if Parrot have a low cost position (able to make it dirt cheap with profit) of if this was just the last deparate attempt to clean out stock. If it does not produce more value than the cost of making it, it is a huge defeat for Parrot (Im pretty sure it was). There will never be a Disco 2 until Parrot figure out a new version of whom to target, with what key features, to be able to sell at what price and what volume. The prospect of yet again selling advanced but super discounted drones to a relatively small segment of techies will not please the shareholders. I am glad you like your Disco! I never had the opportunity to chase anyone - sounds fun (I got chased by that falcon in the video - does that count?). I cannot possibly agree that the Disco deliver good video - it is objectivly terribel! Even for its time! Compare it to the super stable 4K video that you got from a Phantom 4 that was on the market in the same time at a similar price point. Most of my videos are shot on a Phantom 4. Im happy you subscribed, despite our diffrent opinions about the Disco :-)

MattiasAllring hi thanks for getting back to me. I don’t think Parrot was trying to compare with the P4 which is totally in a different class. I think Parrot wanted to get into the fixed wing realm and they copied a more expensive wing from the sense flight corp, which was around $24k. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--gGot8ohtBc.html check this review out of the wing I’m talking about. So Parrot released there version for the $1200. But the consumers still said for less than half the price I can buy a rc plane etc. I think this was designed for the sheer pleasure of flying a fixed wing FPV and not for creating cinematic video same as the P4 was. It was all about the money in this case. Yes if it could be sold for £300 at the end it made you think obviously it cost less than that to create. So unfortunately Parrot shot them selves in the foot and over priced it. I’ve created loads of videos with mine and I’m more than happy with the footage. The experience of sitting in a cockpit flying through the air. I have DJI drones also from phantoms, Spark and Mavic Pro. But these are my cinematic videos tools. The Disco is flying free in the air aircraft. Yes the bird of prey chasing you was cool. I recently had a seagull on the beach chase mine few weeks back. On my channel I’ve loaded the video. Thanks again for your informative video. Cheers and your welcome. 😊👍✈️

Thank you, Andrew! :-)

Exactly!!!

Oh, so you can do a nerdy 4G mod and fly illegal beyond line of sight? Cool, but utterly useless. There is no significant market for illegal DIY nerd toys. To use ReelSteady Go on the utterly useless dynamic range of the video output of the Disco would be like putting makup on a pig. And in addition, that makup was not available while the Disco was on the market. You may love the Disco if you like, but it is still a historical FACT that it failed on the market. Your opinion will not give Parrot back their lost investment. There is no reason to debate that. This video speculates WHY it failed to sell. Please deliver your alternative explanation to the lack of sales numbers, but dont pretend that your personal opinion can change history.

Nerdy? What.... and you making videos about drones and posting them on RU-vid isn’t nerdy 😂. At least I fly real aircraft as a real commercial pilot and post my videos. You just play with toys! This UAV flown in the right hands can produce very good results. In yours not so much😉. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-57qalO7aBnI.html

Oh, so then we both have a pilot license! Not sure how that is relevant since we are debating drones at my drone channel. Not sure how claiming that the Disco can do great video content in ”the right hands” is an argument here, as you only have 14 followers on your channel. ;-)

I very much doubt the value of fixed wing in general for drone photography and beginners, compared to the alternatives. The Disco challenged the main stream drone market and failed. Thats a fact. That does not mean that a Disco 2 would fail, but Parrot would then need to really rework the concept to better fit one of the big segments. I would love them to try, as I think the concept could be reworked into a success, but I dont think that they will go at it again, since they lost too much money in the first failure.

Peter Pretscher I agree to all that you say! The Disco is a fantastic technical achievement with really cool features. The only problem is that these features are a poor match to what the volume market prioritize when they select a drone to buy. Few seem to need the Disco.

@@MattiasAllring Totally agree. Its a niche product. It was however (sadly) never marketed properly to universities/education services. Because there it is the only (no shit) product that can come out of the box AND be customized with a wire cutter. You can easily fit new different wings, edit the software parameters or fly aggressive aerobatic maneuvers on manual mode whatsoever. As that was my idea when buying the disco i could really never understand why not everybody would want one. Now i get it ;-) Ah- forgot: If you push nose down after pushing the landing button you can make a short landing as soon as the range finder senses ground. The prop then goes on reverse thrust. Thats not in the user manual ;-) And: You can totally kill someone with that. The camera is mounted on a metal cast part. If you hit someone flying low and fast and tailwind, hitting someone is like a stun gun for cattle. But not during landing mode though.

Peter Pretscher Its strange that Parrot didnt leverage the niche potential more. All this mods that the fans are exited about could have been endorced and marketed by Parrot in the same way that Apple makes money out of 3rd party apps. I bet that Parrot would have made a lot of money on enabling 3rd party mods, if only they where made available through the same resell network, endorsed and supported. Also, they should help 3rd party modders to target niche market needs, such as education, delivery and whatever else.

MattiasAllring well they tried via a software dev. Kit. I for example however was not able to get to any grips with that. That’s really complex stuff. Just to generate the software environment was a nightmare. They should deploy that somehow via a Remote Desktop client so I don’t need to download a gazillion of tools I don’t understand. But the customers are in for the cheap thrills so either you are an expert and know all that stuff already or a noob which takes ages to work yourself through that because there is no community. Depressing. Fail by parrot. Currently repeating itself with Anafi sdk

What if popular range extenders, battery mods and other legal 3rd party mods would have been picked up by Parrot through a partner program and adjusted:implemented in their portfolio as user friendly clamp-on solutions? As it is now, Parrot opened up for creativity, but didnt leverage on it in their business model by expanding the product portfolio, revenue or targeted market segments. Poor product mgm and business development, imho...

But meant to say - I agree with your general conclusions, and enjoyed the video... !!

Thank you! I was conciously sloppy about reading instructions as I was trying to mimic a realistic level of ignorance of the average noob without aircraft experience. In my opinion I think a noob will be better of with a Spark or similar idiot-proof drone. I struggle a bit to understand whom is skilled enough to handle the Disco, yet too novice to land a normal foam wing? I love the upgrade options you mention! Too bad Parrot didnt offer them. Over all, the Disco got so much right, It just didnt focus enough on one user group to reach the broad market.

Dear KartOpa51, when entering the market of fruit, first check if customers need apples or oranges. Parrots misstake was to think that there was a sustainable market for oranges, while the customers they intended to sell to compared with, and chose, apples. Its very easy to compare, and however unfair it may seem to you, thats what the consumers Parrot needed did. Making the mistake to think that competition comes only from oranges is exactly why product centric design often fail. Disco is just a very obvious case. I understand how unfair you think it is to compare a drone wing (yes it is a drone - read up on the definition) with drone quadrocopters, but thats exactly what the market did - much to the disadvantage of Disco. That Parrot managed to get rid of their stock by plummeting price is hardly anything that gave Parrot return on investment. There will never be a Disco 2 until Parrot figure out a profitable way to take a larger chunk of the drone market. I think you are completly missing my point in this video. I am explaining why the Disco failed on the market. It did fail. It is a fact.

Negative! Read my previous post...👍🏾

😂

You are entitled to your opinion, but how do you explain that it didnt sell? Thats the purpose of this video. That the Disco failed to sell is an undisputable fact - I am just giving my best assessment on why. :-)

I agree i think its better then my drones and planes 🛩️😁

@@MattiasAllring They didnt sell at the price they were asking. But hard to find them available now with the 4g mods that you can do with them.

Can I have one

MattiasAllring You are not just saying why it didn’t sell. You said (from the title, that is clickbait, because is false) that is the most useless drone ever. You didnt say it’s useless in stock version (that also is false), and the user mods doesn’t make it useless(responding to one of your answers). Please consider the much higher number of dislikes and stop falsely arguing.

Will have a look! Sounds exiting, but very unlegal in most of the world.

As a product it sucks, as it does not fit the actual needs of consumers. Therfore bad sales and discontinuation. However, the performance and the open technology platform it is amazing, thus the fan base of techies making mods. I love the tech of the Disco, but I hate the fact that I have never had any use for it. If Parrot would ever come around to make a Disco 2, then video stabilization and a way to get it down in less ideal landing sites would be at the top of my list.

I had a pilot license before I had a drivers license, so believe me I am quite comfortable flying a fixed wing and im more used to real planes than toy quads. It would not have been that hard (for me) landing the Disco in this spot if it was not a drone with ”autonomous landing”. What the landing part of the video shows is me (as a noob reading the manual) trying to wrap my had around how the landing feature works. Seems all that is auto is executing the flare (not explained in the manual). You have to do everything manual including controlling the decend of the final approach, else you overshoot. If you have to do 90% of the landing manual, I just dont see why an auto flare would be enough to tip the scale for a noob. Anyways, my point is that unless you can make a wing design that is better than a quad drone for noobs or any of the other main segments of users - dont go for a wing design. Or pivot to another market segment, which is what Parrot eventually did. That was probably the right call, but really long term bad for us consumers as we are left with a viritual DJI-monopoly. If the Disco would have been as easy to land as it is to launch and fly, it could have been successful with noobs, but it was not. I think Disco is really cool tech, but terrible product design. Thats because I define good product design as beeing the BEST SOULUTION FOR A SIGNIFICANT MARKET SEGMENT. (I.e the best choice for a specific type of users that make up a large enough mass of the market)

@@MattiasAllring I agree with some of your points. With the 4G mod you could say that it is the best for long distance flights. And I feel once you got use to the landing of the drone and had a better surface to land on you would have enjoyed the experience more. A negative of the disco is that you need a large flat open area to land. I live on the Broads National Park in the UK, it is extremely flat and open. This drone allows me to take long distance footage of the area, something I can't do with the Mavic. It's a shame that one of DJI's competitors has dropped out as that allows DJI to charge more for there products. (Like Apple and smart phones)

Thanks buddy! :-)

@@MattiasAllring but "completely" useless at spelling ;)

Thank you, Danni! :-)

I totally agree that the Disco is amazing! Still it is useless to most potential users, as illegal things that require soldering reduces the market scope damatically. Amazing technology, useless product.

@@MattiasAllring Your video is quite useless too - since you got as many dislikes as likes.

With that logic YOU are useless, since you only have 12 followers on your channel. Lets raise the bar of the conversation a bit, shall we?. It is controversial to say that the Disco is useless, mainly because the small fan community missunderstand what I mean by that. A product can be amazing and useless at the same time. ”Useless”, in the sense I use the word, mean that too few people will find themselves in situations where the Disco is the best choice. Dispite some outstanding features. Thats why it did not sell.

@@MattiasAllring Perhaps as a foreigner you don't understand the normal understanding of the word "useless" - it means beneath contempt and no good at all. You are understanding it in the literal sense. It would be better if you had said "Great drone, but I can't see many uses for it". Saying "useless" is bound to annoy many people. Which it seems to have done.

Insulting people was never my intention. I work with product strategy where Usability is a clear term referring to the fit between Customer Problem and Product Solution. Parrot Disco is a high quality Solution that seem to have been developed in a vaccum without a clearly defined Customer and Problem. Hence low Usability (the technical term, used internationally in product strategy) - or, phrased differently, Useless. I thought I explained this concept clearly in the video - either it was a too technical explanation, or people didnt bother to listen. Anyways, no harm intended vs either the community, nor Parrot. I am just very passionate about Usability and thought the Disco was the perfect example to illustrate how a product can fail due to a lack of problem-solution fit.

Yeah, that seems to be the direction that Parrot pivoted when they discontinued the consumer grade version. Probably a smart move

I totally agree that it is not a drone for noobs. It is also not a drone for photography and videograpy. In addition it is not a drone for traveling and not a drone for acrobatics. It is very easy to say who it is NOT for. The problem is that not much market remains and it is very hard to say WHO it is for. From a business perspective, it is not far from the truth to say that it is not really a drone for anyone. Nerds soldering range extenders and 3rd party mods might be heart warming to the developers at Parrot, but essentially neglectable from a business perspective. Cool technology, useless product.

@@MattiasAllring Yeah, is not a drone for anyone. As you said, this drone are more for people who like to use different mods and hacks. It can also be used for scientific research through various modifications. Anyway, I'm glad Parrot has brought in consumer version of a more expensive drone SenseFly eBee. From a business point of view it was expected that people would choose a quadrocopter as a much easier option to pilot and especially transported.I'm sorry the fixed-wing drones didn't catch the public. After Parrot released Disco I expected DJI to come up with an answer to that.

The 4G mod and battery extention packs seems epic, but utterly useless. Isnt 45 min of crappy, unstable video enough?

​@@MattiasAllring Bruh those two mods make the plane more capable. (It makes the plane more useful!) Also, the 4G mod is meant for people who want to go 5+ miles away. And if you're cruising at 350 to 400 AGL and you just let the plane coast, the video is actually quite stable (unless if its windy but most people wouldn't fly very far in high winds anyway) And also, the Parrot Disco isn't really a filming tool. A DJI Phantom 4 is like a flying camera, but the Parrot Disco is like a GA Plane shrunk down with RC control. Quadcopters and fixed-wing drones are very different.

I agree that the mods are super cool and makes the drone more capable. No doubt about that. Still, watch the promo for the Disco that is attached in the description. The Disco was clearly intended to.reach a wide consumer market, not just soldering tech nerds running range experiments. My point throughout the video, is that the Disco failed to focus on any major market segment and thus was never the top pick for any substantial user group. The Disco has epic features, however packaged in a way that did not sell. Way more people wanted to film, fly in dramatic nature and have a simple VTOL operation. A wing design was a risky move by Parrot, but could still have been a success if it had been more crafted around ONE set of users. In my opinion, either more focused on video OR more focused on flight experience with some kind of ”acro mode” OR more focused on noobs beeing able to autonomous land within 10m of the user running both approach and flare autonomous. As it is packaged, everybody gets 80% of what would make them choose the drone over other alternatives (exept the few soldering nerds that get 300%). Thats why the drone failed on the market - not the price.

I am explaining why the Disco didnt win the targeted segment. Key question in my opinion is what the segment that Parrot approached with their marketing video expected: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m1Fpq4inefg.html The purpose of this video is to explain why they failed to reach that segment. The location I chose is challenging, but still very, very much more flat and open than one can expect to be able to shoot videos in a scenic environment like the one in the promo. I get that if I, unlike the promo, would fly from flat booring field it would be easy. But thats not where the segments that the marketing video targetets would ever fly. It has to come down on a spot like this or smaller, else it will not capture that part of the market. Thats the test. It was not windy - sensitive unshielded microphone. I would say maximum 1-2 m/s. It was so weak I was not even sure about the wind direction.

I see your point. I totally agree with you. About the only thing this Drone is good for is just clowning around. I use mine for just exploring and seeing the sights. I don’t fly and windy days because landing can be challenging. I have flown along beaches and open fields. I love it! But I’d never launch then try to land in the small park across the road which I can and do with my drones.

The test was if a beginner out of the box can land the Disco in nature of similar challenge as the promo video (see link). You seem to agree that I could not, so then you agree that the drone is not suitable for newbies. I agree that the Disco is exceptional, but it is also useless (i.e. lacking practical use) for any of the main segments on the drone market. It is a historical fact that the drone failed on the market - I am only analyzing why.

Pics or it didnt happen! :-)

Its not unwanted. I have no intention of selling it. Its just useless. And the field I fly in reflects the environment of the promo video for the Disco (see the links). Whats the fun in flying on a grassy field - they dont do that in the promo, so why should I?

Quality videos?!? Quality camera?!? What have you been smoking?!? The camera is well below even any cheap cell phone camera!! It is rubbish even compared to the toy camera in DJI Spark. Not even the most die hard Parrot fans in this thread has claimed that the camera in the Disco is any good. Please post a link to a ”quality video” shot with a Disco!

Tack! :-)

You may beg as much as you want, but the noice level of the Disco (at least mine) is still way, way more than any quad of any brand I have ever heard.

@@MattiasAllring What do you mean "noice"? Do you mean noise and no the disco is not loud I have heard one. You dont even know how to land a disco. You do not explain how it is bad either. And plus, the disco is not useless. It is a very cool and unique flying wing with very advanced tech. It is really great for long range fpv. Check out Dustin dunnils channel and you will see.

The only 2 options to land that I know of is Linear Landing and Circular Landing. In Circular landing the drone is suppose to circle while gradually decending - to scary option for me to try among trees and power lines. :-)

Find my previous post in which I Explained how to land it partially manual... Yes you can control the aircraft's approach and once you are about maybe 3 feet over the desired landing area you simply press the landing button and the aircraft will smoothly land every single time...👍🏾

Beeing able to do things no other product can do is not a guarantee for success. That is the setback of Product Centric thinking that I am trying to explain in the video. Disco fails to be the stongest alternative in each of the four large segments that I exemplify with, for various reasons unique to each segment. Price was never a problem for some of the segments, but other factors diqualified Disco there. I agree, as i mentioned in the video, that price was part of why it lost the Noob-segment, but not the only reason. In my opinion, it is too hard to land to be able to compete with idiot proof drones such as the Phantom and Spark in the Noob segment. You have to be locked on the idea of flying a wing, yet not competent to fly a real wing or conventional RC-plane, for the Disco to be the best choice. Thats just a too small cut of the market to sustain the development costs of such an ambitious product.