Why the 1970s Predict the Future of Drones

If you said to someone in the 1970s that they could purchase a computer that could do everything from word processing to spreadsheets to video games, they would have looked at you funny. Computers back then were often single-purpose machines. You bought one computer for a particular application and another one for another application. Wang Computers produced a word-processing machine - and that’s all it did. If you needed to do accounting, you bought a computer from another manufacturer who would sell the software and the hardware.  

We think that is absolutely bat-shit crazy today - imagine if Apple and Samsung required you to buy a separate iPhone for each app - but that is the drone industry today. And the current crop of drone manufacturers have little reason to change it.  If you need to purchase a different drone for each application, then it means more money for them. 

But how and why did the computer industry change? Well, it wasn’t because of the incumbent firms like Wang, Data General, and others. BUT you may well point out that IBM (the most incumbent of the incumbents) was really the catalyst of the PC revolution, because in the early 1980s IBM released the open architecture for the PC, which in turn enabled a slew of competitors to enter the industry and drive down prices.  

OK, you may have a point. Yet, I think it’s fair to say that IBM didn’t quite understand or foresee what the open architecture would do to its business model. If they knew that by the early 1990s they would be on the brink of bankruptcy because of the PC revolution (and because of their insane cost structure), then it’s likely that IBM would have done a hard pass. 

Plus we all know how the story ended. It was the garage and dorm-room start-ups of Apple and Dell, who pioneered different interfaces, distribution models, and concepts that ultimately won the day - and not IBM, who would eventually exit the PC business entirely by 2005. 

So where does this leave us? Is this another shameless pitch for the Modovolo Lift? 

In short: yes. 

From our view, DJI, Autel, and Skydio are the IBMs, Wangs, and Data Generals of the current drone era, i.e., the single-purpose machines who can only do word-processing. And we are modestly viewing ourselves as the Apple and/or Dell of the early 1980s. 

That’s why the Modovolo Lift is different. Not only does it have way more flight time that is far less expensive, it’s not a 1970s computer. It’s not a single-purpose machine. You add and remove Lift Pods for the application instead of purchasing yet another drone. 

And Modovolo started in and is still in a garage. But we’ve upgraded to a bigger garage.