Major Smartphone Makers Set Their Sights on DJI's Cash Cow

This article is from the WeChat public account: Real Story Research Lab, Editor: Zhang Duo, Author: Liang Xiang

#01

Vlog Creation Props Up DJI's Market

In March 2024, a Shenzhen girl named Wu Yi came into contact with the DJI Pocket 3 for the first time and instantly became a die-hard fan.

While traveling on Tap Mun Island in Hong Kong, a male teammate saw Wu Yi holding her phone to walk and shoot, so he lent her his Pocket 3.

What impressed Wu Yi first was the Pocket 3's lightness, followed by its ActiveTrack feature: once a person is locked by the lens, they remain in the center of the frame no matter how they move, making it much more stable than a phone.

She also noticed that filming with a phone often requires getting quite close, making the subject stiff and nervous; the Pocket 3 allows for a greater shooting distance, which eliminates the "pretentiousness" of facing the camera.

Later, the guy who lent her the Pocket 3 became her husband. The couple traveled to many places together, all recorded in Wu Yi's Vlogs. Especially in Yili, Xinjiang, Wu Yi filmed for over 20 hours. These lengthy clips can be previewed on her phone via Bluetooth and then auto-edited with one click in the DJI app.

Jia He is a media worker in Beijing. In May 2021, he and his team traveled to Yunnan to shoot a documentary, using the DJI Pocket 2 for the first time.

Jia He found the gimbal's moving time-lapse shooting to be exceptionally brilliant: shooting rolling clouds with a DSLR requires auxiliary equipment like sliding rails and three-axis gimbals, which involves complex procedures and doesn't allow for real-time monitoring; shooting with the Pocket is simple, easy to master, and has extremely low learning and operation costs.

When shooting an empty well, he simply extended the Pocket down using an extension rod. Jia He joked that in the past, they would have had to use a rope to lower a cameraman to the bottom of the well to shoot.

"Unless it's for movies, TV shows, or top-tier bloggers with strict professional requirements for image quality, most shooting scenarios can be replaced by a gimbal like the DJI Pocket," said Jia He.

Image | The sky and clouds captured by Jia He using the Pocket

Ji Xi, who previously worked at an entertainment company, also believes the Pocket 3 is an era-defining imaging device. "In the past, when our company shot variety shows and reality TV, if a celebrity was running outdoors, the cameraman had to carry the equipment and run along, which was exhausting. Now, you can just use a Pocket 3 to track and shoot."

Some dating shows even mount gimbals on fixed positions to replace cameras. "But there are things it can't replace; for close-ups of individuals, a telephoto lens is still needed," Ji Xi explained.

#02

Smartphone Giants Enter the Gimbal Camera Market

The boom in short videos is continuously driving the sales of handheld imaging devices. A research report by Zheshang Securities states that for every 100 million increase in short video users, the shipment of handheld smart imaging devices increases by 5.06 million units.

Meanwhile, global smartphone shipments in 2026 are estimated to decline by 13.9% year-on-year. On one hand is a saturated red ocean; on the other is a fast-growing new blue ocean. Entering the gimbal camera market has naturally become the second growth curve for smartphone manufacturers seeking expansion.

Moreover, this is a high-margin business. The gross margin of leading handheld imaging manufacturers is generally around 50%, while the hardware gross margin of domestic smartphones is mostly just over 10%. Fast growth and high profitability—what businessman wouldn't be tempted?

vivo, benchmarking against the DJI Pocket, has set up a team of nearly 100 people to develop a handheld gimbal camera. Recently, it launched an experience recruitment campaign for the gimbal camera in Shenzhen.

Supply chain sources say the product will begin mass production in October, manufactured by Luxshare Precision. The launch time is expected between November and December, with current inventory expectations at around one million units.

An insider revealed: "The vivo Pocket was originally planned for release in the third quarter, but after other companies entered the market, vivo postponed the launch to the fourth quarter, preparing to observe the market performance of competitors' products before releasing their own."

OPPO had previously initiated a handheld gimbal camera project internally, codenamed "Fuyao," and its related product will also hit the market in the fourth quarter.

Xiaomi and Hohem have also collaborated on a gimbal camera, similarly benchmarking against the Pocket. It is internally positioned as a "pocket camera" targeting the mid-to-low end.

Beyond handheld gimbals, smartphone manufacturers have another route: integrating gimbal functions directly into the phone.

Recently, OPPO launched the Reno 16 Pro, advertising the addition of a gimbal function, equipped with a 200-megapixel ultra-clear gimbal main camera and a built-in professional gimbal anti-shake structure.

Honor CEO Li Jian recently announced that the Robot Phone will be officially released in the third quarter of this year. Honor's approach is to build the gimbal directly into the phone.

Major smartphone makers entering the gimbal camera market show a business judgment of daring to follow rather than lead. It seems like cross-border expansion, but they actually possess inherent advantages.

In terms of technology, imaging has long been an area where domestic phone makers have been fiercely competing. Phone shooting features like portraits, color, focus, anti-shake, and even AI algorithms can be directly reused. Moreover, they hold partnership resources with imaging companies for endorsement.

In the supply chain, raw materials like optical modules, chips, and structural components for handheld smart imaging devices can also be shared with smartphone products, saving them from starting from scratch.

In terms of scale, vivo and OPPO's over 300,000 offline stores far crush DJI's count of less than a thousand. Especially in lower-tier markets, they exceed DJI's coverage, attracting a broader customer base and holding an advantage in after-sales service.

Additionally, even for videos shot with the DJI Pocket, the final output is published on the phone. If the gimbal and phone are integrated at the底层 level, the chain from shooting, creation to sharing would be much smoother, potentially attracting more creators.

However, these advantages might mostly remain on paper.

The Pocket series boasts DJI's years of technical accumulation. In terms of supply chain integration, the camera sensors come from Sony, the lenses are custom-made, and the entire camera module is encapsulated and manufactured by DJI itself. It has formed a complete closed loop from accessories to software, making it difficult to imitate.

A person from a smartphone manufacturer once estimated that making a product similar to the Pocket 3 yields almost no gross profit: "If you use a one-inch sensor, you can't be cheaper than them; if you don't use a one-inch sensor, your performance can't beat them."

Jia He stated that setting aside the actual shooting performance, the Pocket 3 isn't expensive right now; it can be bought for around 1,700 yuan in the second-hand market. The gimbal cameras launched by smartphone makers might not be able to squeeze into the market through a price war.

He believes that a gimbal is not a rigid demand either. "If you really need a gimbal camera to shoot, just rent one!"

On Taobao and Xianyu, many merchants already rent out the DJI Pocket series, with daily rents around 20 yuan.

#03

Who Will Define the Next-Generation Portable Imaging Portal

Far more than just smartphone giants are eyeing this cake. The professional imaging camp is also besieging DJI: Insta360's Luna gimbal camera will be released in June, featuring dual cameras, Leica imaging, and a modular design with a detachable screen, attempting to avoid cut-throat competition with high-end configurations; even the camera giant Canon published a gimbal camera patent this year, envisioning an integrated three-axis gimbal that can automatically fold.

IDC data shows that in 2025, global shipments of handheld smart cameras reached 16.65 million units, a year-on-year surge of 83%, with DJI exclusively holding 62% of the market share.

A category defined and nearly monopolized by DJI is now being pried open from all sides by smartphone makers, panoramic camera makers, and traditional camera makers.

The market may shift from DJI's absolute dominance to a stratified 1+N landscape, giving consumers more choices. At the same time, it also sparks an imagination—who will define the next-generation portable imaging portal? Will we still need an independent gimbal camera in the future, or will it eventually become just a feature within a smartphone?

Jia He believes that it is a general trend for professional imaging devices to have gimbal functions. However, the phone + gimbal model puzzles him. Constrained by physical thickness, the improvement of sensors and apertures in phones has reached its limit; achieving professional-grade image quality is unrealistic.

"You use your phone for daily tasks; there's no need to specifically add features like a gimbal. Releasing a gimbal phone—ordinary people don't need it, professionals look down on it—it's very strange," he said.

As a mass Vlog creator, Wu Yi holds a similar attitude: unless the shooting image quality sees an era-defining leap, she wouldn't consider a gimbal phone either.

Regarding Honor's Robot Phone bringing in ARRI, the century-old film equipment giant, for endorsement, Wu Yi stated that performance suited to consumer usage scenarios is the top priority. There's too much marketing positioning right now; we still need to look at the genuine public feedback after the launch.

Ji Xi, now a full-time self-media creator, shoots entirely with an iPhone. "If I use a professional gimbal camera to shoot, it feels more aggressive. But if you shoot with a phone, people just assume you're recording your life."

However, he is optimistic about the route of integrating gimbal functions into phones. He believes that independent handheld gimbal devices might gradually be swallowed up as phones iterate.

In the history of imaging equipment, there is no shortage of stories where "kings are left behind by the times."

GoPro was once the absolute overlord of handheld imaging; now it is in the countdown to being sold off. Stagnant technology and a failure to understand users led to its territory being stolen by DJI and Insta360 using new formats during the years of peak demand.

Unlike sports cameras, the gimbal camera is a sufficiently large market, with room for both DJI and new players to hold their respective positions.

DJI has already secured a group of creators accustomed to using the Pocket; once this usage habit is formed, it is difficult to migrate.