Last August, the BBC reported on a drone that had landed on the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier that had been docked at Invergordon in the Highlands. An amateur drone pilot had been flying the drone nearby the ship when a sudden gust of wind triggered the drone's automatic landing function. The drone then proceeded to land on the warship's deck without anyone noticing it. This mirrored an incident in 2015 in which a drone had crashed on the grounds of the White House causing shock as it was believed this was a terrorist attack.

 Despite these issues, drones aren't all that bad. In fact, they are now widely used in numerous industries, the most well-known of these being Facebook's Aquila drone. This will be used to provide an internet connection to people all around the world. Other global retailers include Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba, who are working toward implementing drone-based deliveries.

 In much the same way the economy circulates, so too do advances in technology occur. There are slowdowns, recessions, recoveries and booms. Drones, when first introduced, were not welcomed as expected. However, they have had the spotlight shone on them more recently, which leads me to wonder why. How will the future of the drone turn out? Will it disappear or fly ever higher?

 According a report by business data platform, Mattermark, nearly USD 368 million was invested in 105 drone startups in 2015. In the table below, the top nine fastest growing startups can be seen. However, second on the list, Lily Robotics, is currently facing a crisis after experiencing production delays despite showing growth in the first half of 2016.

 One interesting point is that these startups tend to have a relatively small number of employees, which would imply that they have efficient, productive systems in place.

 China also has several promising drone companies, including Ewatt, MMC, TT Aviation, China RS and Sunward making industrial drones and DJI, Xaircraft, Ehang and Zerotech for consumer drones. Most of these are affiliated with state-owned defense companies, giving them financial strength and market impact.

 Most people though tend to be more interested in consumer drones. In the table below, we can see the top five consumer drone makers, and it is said that they draw their investments from venture capitalists, Internet service providers and information and communications enterprises.

 Let's take a closer look at DJI, one of the most famous drone makers in the world. Established in Shenzhen, China in 2006, DJI began with helicopter-type drone FC (Flight Controller), but later turned to the consumer drone market in 2010. Their quad-copter drone, Phantom, released in 2013, helped drive the company's competitiveness as sales began to surge from CNY 3 million in 2010 to CNY 3 billion in 2014, taking a 50-70% share in the world drone market.

 Competition among drone startups for investment is on the increase as is the popularity of the drones grows as well. What is it that makes drones popular though?

 For industrial purposes, drones are used to assist with data collection. Drones for hobbyists, however, have a lighter purpose as they are used primarily for taking photos and video.

 As small consumer drones are enjoying a boom, so too is the advancement of digital technology. DJI recently released their software development kit (SDK) to allow users to design their own apps. With the SDK, a user's experience is enhanced as functions such as camera, gimbal, flight systems and intelligent flight controls can be manipulated directly.

 Likewise, as e-commerce grows, so too are drone makers capitalizing on this situation by shifting more towards the use of online channels. To promote their products, social networking sites are also valuable resources. It's also expected though that drone makers will create a hybrid shopping channel using both on- and offline methods to provide customers with both an intuitive view and hands-on experience with the products.

 Drones also provide viewers with a whole new perspective on things that was not possible before. Perhaps you have seen footage of extreme sports and nature scenes taken with small drones for example. In the future, there will be many other possible applications of these devices as well.

 As stated earlier, consumer drones are used primarily for photo and video taking, while companies adopt a more practical approach with drones being used for delivery services, data collection and the like. Even though most of the industrial drone usage is still at an experimental stage, they will become more prevalent commercially with a shift for major drone makers from sales to data services.

 From a technical point of view, developer communities will grow with even small groups getting the chance to collaborate through the open source community.

 In October 2014, Linux Foundation, the largest open source non-profit technology-based organization, agreed to partnership with twelve IT companies for the Dronecode Project. This project seeks to advance the development of technology and accelerate open source projects by utilizing drone operating systems.

 Apart from software, hardware development is similarly active. As production of drone parts becomes streamlined, the drones themselves will become smaller and more efficient. Qualcomm, a renowned US IT company, is currently working on such designs, which are expected to facilitate drone production. This level of competition will inevitably lead to a price war with the drone maker capable of financial strength, having an exceptional business model and an enhanced user experience emerging the victor.

 When it comes to actual drone application, technical convergence becomes important. Examples of this can be seen in Amazon's drone-based delivery service and even in military-based drone weaponization. Connectivity Lab at Facebook is researching how to provide affordable internet access in remote communities around the world using drones and other technologies. Plus, Finnish IT company Nokia is working on communication networks as part of their contract with multi-national Emirati-based telecommunication service provider Etisalat.

 Drones also assure revenue from the following services :

1) Training service - There is increasing demand for highly capable drone pilots.

2) Big data service - Drones will contribute greatly to cloud and big data services as a source of aerospace data collection.

3) Flight service - Industrial drones are expensive and difficult to operate and manage.

For these reasons, there is expected to be an emergence of companies specializing in drone operation.

4) Software / hardware customizing service - More companies will implement industrial drones. To provide differentiated services, hardware and software customized to the needs of the customers will therefore be required.

 With new opportunities, there are always new challenges. Current challenges for drone makers include improving battery life and technology for IFCS (Intelligent Flight Control Systems). There are also social and political barriers to overcome, such as privacy and security issues, which also hinder innovations in this field. Looking at the current progress of drone technology development though, the future of the drone does seem bright.