Hang in there: Snapchat Camera Drone is in the works!
Remember that drone that can follow you, wherever you go? It might have seemed like a silly idea to some at the beginning, but not any more. The drone video below has been viewed more than 1 million times and Snapchat camera drone is reportedly in the works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWrApA8oRbI
According to The New York Times, Snapchat camera drone could 'help users take overhead videos and photos and then feed that visual data to the company'. While it's not clear whether the drone would be available to consumers, it makes perfect sense now that Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. brands itself as 'a camera company'.
In the video for investors that became available as a part of Snapchat IPO roadshow, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel emphasized the importance of video as a means of telling one's story and said that "we are at the beginning of what cameras can do". The company reinforced their position on the importance of the video in its public offering prospectus by saying: "We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way that people live and communicate. Our products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together."
A bird-eye view on competition
Snapchat is not the first company to realize the power of video storytelling and jump on the opportunity. Following the reports that Facebook has been testing a video feed, the company already launched it in the Facebook app if you haven't noticed (tap the ▶️️ at the bottom of the app to access it) and it's very likely that this is how Facebook main feed will look like, sooner rather than later.
When it comes to hardware video products, Snapchat is entering the space that, despite many players in the market, is not saturated. GoPro's drone camera called Karma didn't have much success: the company recalled Karma in November last year to address a performance issue and relaunched it in February.
The 'big brother' Google is not giving up on its Google Glass-inspired idea of camera products and is reportedly working on a camera hat that the company recently received a patent for.
These products, while with the same video storytelling idea at heart, have not released what would be easy for consumers to use, Apple style, and here's where Snapchat has a true opportunity. Snapchat Spectacles demonstrated that Snap can create consumer-friendly innovative products that are stylish and easy to use and it's only natural that Snapchat camera drone would be the next product we see from Snap.
A Chinese proverb says, 'it's better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times', so time will show whether Snapchat camera drone will be another cool eye candy.
