Highly Anticipated DJI Mavic Pro, GoPro Karma Seem to Be Crawling, Not Flying, Out of Warehouses

Frustrating UAV enthusiasts, both GoPro and DJI acknowledged yesterday that they have had trouble getting their highly anticipated new drones into the market.

DJI announced its Mavic Pro at the end of September with a planned October 15 ship date. However, by the end of the month, only a few units seemed to have trickled into the market. Customers started to get antsy, and DJI eventually issued a statement apologizing for delivery delays.

The company blamed an issue with the integration of an unspecified part into the Mavic Pro, but also cited higher-than-expected demand for the unit. "We have been shipping for nearly two weeks," DJI said, but even with round-the-clock production, we unfortunately cannot give specific delivery estimates for many orders moving through various global sales channels because of this demand." DJI said that orders received by November 3 should be shipped within seven to eight weeks. 

Today, the DJI website says only that new orders will ship "within December." The Apple store estimates shipment in six to seven weeks, with in-store availability set to December 27.

Meanwhile, GoPro yesterday announced disappointing results for the third quarter, as revenue fell more than 40 percent over the year-ago period. The culprit? While CEO Nick Woodman insisted during the company's earnings conference call yesterday evening that the Karma really did go on sale in the U.S. on its scheduled October 23 launch date, he said "production issues" led to "lower-than-expected launch volumes" for the Karma as well as the new Hero5 Black camera.

There doesn't seem to be any connection between the problems getting the Karma and the Mavic Pro to market. Asked during the call if shortages of key drone components might have affected production for GoPro as well as its competitors, Woodman said that's not the case. "We're going to hopefully catch up, but it's been a slow start," he said. "I don't think we can pin it on a component shortage."

GoPro President Anthony Bates said the company is now at "full production" on the Hero5, but did not make the same claim for the Karma. The $1,099 Karma bundled with the Hero5 Black is currently listed on the GoPro website with a ship date "on or before November 28." The standalone Karma drone ($799) is listed as "coming soon."