作為全球民用無人機行業龍頭，總部設在深圳的大疆創新迎來了一位新的“駕駛員”，總之至少是一位新的“聯合駕駛員”。

這家生產出“精靈”和“御”等熱門無人機的廠商宣布，已將電子產品行業資深高管羅鎮華任命為公司總裁，接替大疆創始人汪滔負責日常運營。

汪滔是無人機愛好者，2006年在香港的學生宿舍里成立了大疆創新。他仍是公司首席執行官以及最大股東（持股遠超其他股東），并將繼續監督大疆的產品開發。大疆的高管指出，羅鎮華升任總裁體現了汪滔返回實驗室的意愿，他想重新定義并擴展大疆的技術，而技術正是大疆成為全球最大無人機廠商的根本因素。

汪滔在任命羅鎮華的公告中表示：“大疆目前在全世界有超過1.1萬名員工，在全球17座城市設有辦事機構。隨著全球業務的不斷擴大，我們需要在經營方面增強管理團隊的實力。”

大疆的精靈四軸無人機2013年問世，一經推出就備受愛好者和專業攝影師青睞，可謂消費級無人機行業的創立者。它的高端“悟”無人機近7磅（約3.15公斤）重，價格超過3000美元（19980元人民幣），一直是航空攝影硬核愛好者的首選。

去年11月大疆推出了御Mavic Pro無人機，從而進入了一個比以前大得多的市場。這款緊湊型產品的重量不到2磅（約0.9公斤），支持4K分辨率，可連續飛行27分鐘，有效控制距離達7公里，價格不超過1000美元（6660元人民幣）。

大疆沒有公布銷售數據。但羅鎮華表示，推出三天內收到的Mavic Pro訂單是該公司預測的全月訂單量的三倍。大疆征服了這個參與者眾多的領域，其中不乏資金充裕的歐美競爭對手，包括總部設在加州圣馬特奧的GoPro，后者未能按照承諾推出水平相當的無人機。

今年5月，大疆推出了“曉”無人機。它不像御飛的那么遠，那么快，分辨率也沒有御高，配備的電池較小，只能飛行15分鐘。但“曉”只有易拉罐那么大，價格也只有500美元（3330元人民幣）左右，而且可以用簡單的手勢進行控制。“曉”的銷量同樣遠遠超過大疆的預期。

羅鎮華拒絕透露大疆下一款產品的詳細情況。但他明確表示，大疆的策略是較低的價格和較高的銷量。他說：“就連‘曉’的價格也不是那么親民。我們想讓產品有更親民的價格，同時繼續提供同樣的頂尖技術，這樣就能讓更多的人享用我們的技術。”

要實施這樣的策略，大疆就得快速擴大業務規模。羅鎮華似乎是執行這項任務的理想人選——他在臺灣大學和美國圣塔克拉拉大學獲得工程學位，并曾在蘋果公司、西門子、明基電通和富士康擔任工程、運營和產品管理等高級職務。

羅鎮華2015年加入大疆，此前他在富士康任職，這家臺灣大型企業是iPhone的主要代工廠商。在富士康，羅鎮華負責的業務部門有逾2.5萬名員工。他進入大疆時，這家無人機公司的運營部門只有2200人。但羅鎮華說，大疆在運營方面遇到的挑戰遠遠超過富士康。大疆比富士康增長的快，而且產品周期要短得多——大疆的產品周期為3-6個月，而富士康為1年左右。無人機技術比手機復雜，而且無法準確預測新產品的需求。

大疆認為，如果可以把產品價格壓到500美元（3330元人民幣）以下，消費級無人機的市場就絕不會飽和。

調研機構Gartner預計，今年全球無人機銷量將增至300萬架，市場收入將達到60億美元（399.6億元人民幣），比2016年上升34%。商用無人飛行器市場研究公司Skylogic Research估算，大疆在500-1000美元無人機市場處于領先位置，市場份額為36%，遠遠超過同類企業——排名第二的3D Robotics占有19%的市場份額。此外，由《連線》雜志前編輯克里斯·安德森領導的3D Robotics在幾乎燒掉1000億美元風投資金后，已經放棄了制造無人機的夢想。

3D Robotics前首席收入官克林·吉恩去年10月接受采訪時說：“我們意識到，一家設在硅谷、以軟件為主的公司和一家在中國的、強大的垂直整合制造企業進行競爭根本就是難上加難。”

本月早些時候，3D Robotics宣布它的Site Scan軟件平臺將和大疆進行整合，從而在圖像-數據轉換方面兼容大疆無人機。3D Robotics還發布了新的企業無人機數據平臺，大疆則認為這個領域有非常多的增長機會。

大疆把目光投向企業無人機領域不難理解。Gartner估算，目前個人無人機占市場銷量的90%以上，但只占市場收入的40%。羅鎮華稱，大疆剛剛開始探索房地產、采礦、搜救以及設備維保等行業使用無人機的途徑。

今年2月大疆發布了經緯M200無人機，后者專門用于探查橋梁、輸電鐵塔等難以攀爬的建筑。羅鎮華認為，企業無人機最有前途的領域之一是農業，在這個領域，每年都有許多人因噴灑農藥而喪生，使用無人機則會讓這項工作變得更加安全。同事們透露，以動手能力和討厭成為焦點而著稱的汪滔將監督這些產品的開發，同時關注其他發展機遇。8月6日，36歲的汪滔以他標志性的山羊胡+貝雷帽形象罕見地公開露面——他在深圳灣體育中心主持了大疆每年都承辦的大學生機器人賽事——Robomaster機甲大師賽。參賽選手來自200多所高校，用來對戰的機器人和無人機均由這些選手自行制作和編程。在一片閃光燈和漫天的彩色紙屑中，汪滔和深圳市政府官員把20萬元人民幣的巨大支票頒發給了獲得勝利的華南理工大學團隊。當鏡頭靠攏上來，得獎者在媒體面前擺出愉悅姿態時，汪滔的臉上閃過一絲笑意，然后靜靜地離他們而去。（財富中文網）?

譯者：Charlie

審稿：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.