Skip to content

How Lily Robotics disintegrated before launch

Wired goes deep on what went wrong with the sexiest 'self flying' camera drone ever conceived, the Lily drone.

Seamus Byrne
Seamus Byrne
1 min read
How Lily Robotics disintegrated before launch

Wired goes deep on what went wrong with the sexiest 'self flying' camera drone ever conceived, the Lily drone.

A fabulous promo video turned into many unhappy preorder customers who were going to get nothing.

As soon as the promotion video came out on May 12, 2015, people began to purchase the drones. Quickly, the video amassed 30 million viewers, and Lily sold $34 million in presales at a discounted price of $499 each. (The price increased steadily in $100 increments as the presale period ended, up to $999, the intended retail price.)

Have we learned enough as consumers from big failures like this?

[embed]https://youtu.be/4vGcH0Bk3hg[/embed]

BusinessTechnology

Seamus Byrne Twitter

Founder and Head of Content at Byteside.


Related Posts

Paleblue lets you keep traditional batteries charged on the go

Just when you thought traditional batteries were dead, here comes Paleblue with a full range of classic cells that recharge over USB.

Four AA batteries being charged on USB via a laptop USB port.

Jabra gear converges on a hybrid work audio sweet spot

Not every business accessory maker is getting this hybrid work era right, but it's great to see Jabra is adapting its line up very nicely to the new era.

Jabra Speak2 75 Bluetooth speakerphone sitting on a table next to a laptop

Sennheiser Accentum Plus headphones pack big sound and big energy

The new Sennheiser ACCENTUM Plus wireless headphones have just landed, with an aim to offer the great sound you expect from the classic audio brand along with great battery life. A combo of 50 hours of battery on a full charge plus 5 hours of playtime from just 10 minutes