Sony to stop selling its pricey Airpeak S1 drone after years of backlashes & negative reviews
A fall from grace.
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Key notes
- Sony will discontinue the Airpeak S1 drone by March 31, 2025, due to business changes.
- Replacement parts will be available until March 2026, and support continues until March 2030.
- Despite attempts to improve the drone, including new accessories, it struggled in the market and faced negative reviews.
Sony has now decided to discontinue the sales of the Airpeak S1 drone by the end of March 2025.
“Thank you for your continued patronage of Sony products,” says the company in the goodbye notes. It also mentions that the decision was made “due to recent changes in the business environment.”
The Japanese tech giant says further that the replacement batteries and propellers will remain available until March 31, 2026, and inspections, repairs, and software support will continue through March 31, 2030.
Initially unveiled at CES 2021, the $9,000 Sony Airpeak S1 drone was designed to capture high-definition footage with Sony’s Alpha cameras with stable flight in winds up to 44.7 mph.
But it faced an overwhelming reaction left and right, particularly due to its limited 12-minute flight time with a camera attached and a top speed of just 55.9 mph.
Still, Sony made some efforts to somehow recoup the lost momentum. The company introduced new accessories for the Airpeak S1 drone last year: a lighter PX1 gimbal, an RTK navigation kit, and a higher-capacity battery.
That still does not stop its fall from grace. To add insult to injury, Sony’s launch of the ILX-LR1 61-megapixel drone camera in 2023—which was incompatible with the Airpeak S1—signaled the drone’s decline.
Ouch.
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