Use of drones to triple by 2020

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts that 2.5m drones will be in use in the US by the end of 2016, with this expected to triple to over 7m by 2020. Furthermore, the FAA expects consumer drones to grow from 1.9m by the end of the year to 4.3m by 2020. However, the adoption of drones does still rely heavily on the FAA's upcoming drone regulations, which are expected to be released in Spring.

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Drones are about to fill the skies.

The Federal Aviation Administration said last week that it expects 2.5 million drones to be in use in the U.S. by the end of 2016, and it expects that number to triple to more than 7 million by 2020, reports Daily Mail.

The FAA expects consumer drones to grow from 1.9 million at the end of 2016 to 4.3 million by 2020. In that same period, the administration expects commercial drone usage to grow from 600,000 to 2.7 million.

Enterprise drone adoption will depend heavily on the FAA's upcoming drone regulations, which it plans to release in the spring. The U.S. currently lags behind Europe and Asia in commercial drone adoption because of regulatory hurdles.

For example, current FAA regulations mandate that pilots have to be able to see their drones at all times in the air, which prevents companies from using drones on long flights for deliveries or similar tasks. Furthermore, the FAA has restricted exemptions for companies that want to use drones for tasks such as photography and land surveying.

If the FAA were to relax some of these restrictions, then it would allow drones to infiltrate new industries and ultimately increase the speed of drone adoption.

Drones turned the corner in 2015 to become a popular consumer device, while a framework for regulation that legitimizes drones in the US began to take shape. Technological and regulatory barriers still exist to further drone adoption.

Drone manufacturers and software providers are quickly developing technologies like geo-fencing and collision avoidance that will make flying drones safer. The accelerating pace of drone adoption is also pushing governments to create new regulations that balance safety and innovation.

Safer technology and better regulation will open up new applications for drones in the commercial sector, including drone delivery programs like Amazon’s Prime Air and Google’s Project Wing initiatives.

Jonathan Camhi, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed drones report that forecasts sales revenues for consumer, enterprise, and military drones. It also projects the growth of drone shipments for consumers and enterprises.

The report details several of world’s major drone suppliers and examines trends in drone adoption among several leading industries. Finally, it examines the regulatory landscape in several markets and explains how technologies like obstacle avoidance and drone-to-drone communications will impact drone adoption.

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Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

We project revenues form drones sales to top $12 billion in 2021, up form just over $8 billion last year.

Shipments of consumer drones will more than quadruple over the next five years, fueled by increasing price competition and new technologies that make flying drones easier for beginners.

Growth in the enterprise sector will outpace the consumer sector in both shipments and revenues as regulations open up new use cases in the US and EU, the two biggest potential markets for enterprise drones.

Technologies like geo-fencing and collision avoidance will make flying drones safer and make regulators feel more comfortable with larger numbers of drones taking to the skies.

Right now FAA regulations have limited commercial drones to a select few industries and applications like aerial surveying in the agriculture, mining, and oil and gas sectors.

The military sector will continue to lead all other sectors in drone spending during our forecast period thanks to the high cost of military drones and the growing number of countries seeking to acquire them.

In full, the report:

Compares drone adoption across the consumer, enterprise, and government sectors.

Breaks down drone regulations across several key markets and explains how they’ve impacted adoption.

Discusses popular use cases for drones in the enterprise sector, as well as nascent use case that are on the rise.

Analyzes how different drone manufacturers are trying to differentiate their offerings with better hardware and software components.

Explains how drone manufacturers are quickly enabling autonomous flight in their products that will be a major boon for drone adoption.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the world of drones.