Drone Wars: Competition Heating Up As GoPro Prepares To Launch?

• While Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT were dreaming about drones, the actual industry was building quite rapidly.
• The market then "bifurcated between commercial units and what are effectively toys," Detwiler Fenton analyst Alex Arnold explained.
• In a report issued Tuesday, he shared a look into this segment and GoPro Inc GPRO's potential incursion.

The dominant player in the non-toy drones market is Chinese tech company DJI, which according to Detwiler's research note, will probably sell roughly $1 billion of drones (priced in the $500-10,000 range, with a median around $1,500) this year. The company has filed with the regulators and the experts suspect its IPO will take place in the first half of 2016.

Interestingly, the analysts expect GoPro to launch its own drone around the same period, rapidly becoming the No. 2 player in this fast-growing market.

Related Link: EXCLUSIVE: Detwiler Fenton Says GoPro Doesn't Fit Apple's Long-Term Ecosystem, Skeptical Of Merger Comments

"We recently caught up with some friends affiliated with a large industry association that suggested that their plan was to lobby against regulation and registration, with arguments such as stunting innovation and clipping the wings of growth and progress," the report said.

Remarkably, DJI suggested that loose regulation was actually irresponsible and might "not serve all best over time. With a reduced fight from stakeholders, we will be seeing the Drone registry beginning next week, but not for kids looking to loop the living room."

Next year, the U.S. market could reach 1 million units – not counting models priced under $500.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.