THE LILY CAMERA DRONE – A FAILURE WITH POTENTIAL OR A FANTASTIC FLOP?

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THE LILY CAMERA DRONE A FAILURE WITH POTENTIAL
OR A FANTASTIC FLOP?
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• The camera drone start-up, Lily Robotics, was a
  much talked about venture by a company who
  launched back in 2015. Their promotional video
  blew everybodys socks off with what they made
  the new gadget look like it could achieve.
• The camera appeared to be able to follow you
  wherever you went, and when pre orders were made
  available, millions of folks came forward to
  reserve one.However, after hitting some
  developmental snags, the company made the
  unexpected announcement that it was going to
  close for business. Not a single drone had been
  sold. They went on to release a statement about
  refunding those who had placed pre orders, but
  what exactly went wrong? Was the Lily camera
  drone a failure that had potential, or just a
  fantastic flop?

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• Lawsuits filed against the Lily camera
• On the 12th Jan the exact same day that the
  company announced they were closing their doors
  for business a lawsuit was filed on behalf of
  the people of California. The suit alleged that
  the company responsible for creating the Lily
  camera drone, produced a promotional video that
  was purposefully misleading and led viewers to
  believe that the drone had capabilities far
  beyond what it truly had. They also accused the
  company of using a GoPro camera and a manually
  operated drone from another company, to shoot the
  footage and give a false impression of the Lily
  drone.

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• Unfeasible shipping estimates and rule
  violations
• The promotional video was also accused of showing
  a company that gave its customers completely
  unfeasible shipping estimations, that was in
  violation of several rules because of this, and
  had no workable system in place to cope with the
  huge numbers of international orders that it
  received.
• A video that went viral
• The promotional video was viewed millions of
  times and orders for the camera drone reflected
  this interest, with more than 25 million dollars
  raised in pre-order sales in the six weeks after
  the video was released in 2015.

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• A product that was never shipped to anyone,
  anywhere
• After all the hype surrounding the Lily camera
  drone, not even a single product was ever shipped
  to any customers, anywhere in the world.
  Unfortunately, promises were still being made to
  those customers that theyre much anticipated new
  gadget would soon arrive.
• The lawsuit claimed that in fact, Lily Robotics
  didnt even have a prototype of the wonder gadget
  with all the features that it was shown of having
  in the promotional video, when it was shot, and
  that they used prototypes for advertising
  purposes.

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• So, was the Lily camera drone a fantastic
  failure?
• This is a tough question to give a definitive
  answer to. Its clear that if the Lily camera
  drone could really do all the things that it
  claimed it could and which were clearly shown
  in the promotional video then it would have
  been a resounding success and not a flop. But, it
  seems that the drone was not capable of
  performing the amazing feats seen in the video,
  otherwise surely the product itself would have
  been used? Did this mean that the company had
  lied about what their product was capable of, or
  did they simply run out of funds to continue
  experimenting with the drone?

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• The answer to this is still not clear, and while
  Lily Robotics stated that it would refund all the
  pre orders as quickly as possible, why they
  couldnt raise more funds from investors to
  continue developing the gadget, is a mystery.
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