3mn personal and commercial drones will be shipped in 2017: Gartner

According to the research firm Gartner, more than three million drones are expected to be produced this year with the global market revenue set to cross $6 billion. The credit goes to the increasing production of drones for personal and commercial agencies alike.

Regarding revenue, the global market revenue for personal and business drones is expected to increase 39 percent more than in 2016.

Gartner is also expecting the drone industry to further grow to more than $11.2 billion by 2020.

Though the overall drone market is projected to increase, the dynamics of the personal and commercial sub-markets are very different, as per Gartner.

According to a new forecast from Gartner, Inc, "Personal drones will continue to increase in popularity as an affordable extension of consumers' smartphones for taking photographs and selfies and for other entertainment options." Of the 3 million units, personal drones are expected to account for about 2.8 million.

The market for commercial drones is much smaller, with a significantly higher average selling price in comparison with personal drones. With more countries solidifying their drone regulations, the market is beginning to stabilise, and companies are now buying drones to test and deploy in nearly every industry. They are more specialised to a function, such as mapping, delivery or mechanical inspection, so prices vary according to these requirements.

Gerald Van Hoy, a senior research analyst at Gartner, said, "The commercial and personal drone markets are increasingly overlapping, as lower-priced personal devices are being used for commercial ventures."

He further added, "Personal drone vendors are now aggressively trying to position themselves in the commercial market. Recent technological advances blur the lines, allowing personal drones to be used in many special-purpose applications such as surveillance, 3D mapping and modelling."

Gartner expects the inspection segment to dominate with 30 percent of the commercial drone market through 2020.

Though Agriculture was considered to be the first big commercial drone market, by 2020 agriculture will represent 7 percent of the commercial market.

Drones for industrial inspections have been much more successful, primarily in oil and gas, energy, infrastructure and transportation, the report said. However, the delivery drones will "not be a major factor for several years, the report says.

"Delivery drones will be mired in logistical issues like the time needed to return a drone to its origin point after delivery, and will amount to less than 1 percent of the commercial market by 2020. We expect that delivery drones will begin finding a niche in business-to-business applications first, particularly for internal services within one company where logistics will not be such a big factor," said Van Hoy.