The long-awaited Pocket frenzy and DJI's ambition

In the tech circle of 2026, a long - awaited carnival is taking place.

In the fast - paced iteration of consumer electronics, where products are replaced every six months and become obsolete within a year, the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 has shown an extremely abnormal life cycle. More than two years have passed since its release, but it still appears frequently at popular scenic spots, concert venues, and even on the streets. Instead of fading with time, it has gradually become a classic symbol that transcends market cycles.

This product, jokingly called the "electronic Moutai" by netizens, owes its long - lasting vitality to breaking the barrier between "professional equipment" and "public life". Looking back on the past two years, the DJI Pocket 3 has achieved a textbook - level shift in product perception: In 2023, it was hailed as the "ultimate Vlog gadget" by digital bloggers; then, it quickly penetrated the market and became the "travel shooting companion" for ordinary families and young people; recently, with the change in social media trends, it has become the popular "Live photo gadget" and "movie - like atmosphere gadget" across the internet, thanks to its unique imaging quality.

When a hardcore tech product starts to be discussed on Xiaohongshu for its "photo - taking effect" and is used to record "life - defining photos" on WeChat Moments, it is no longer limited to the niche creator economy but has entered the broader mass imaging market.

Seeing the huge market potential from niche to mass, mobile phone giants and traditional imaging manufacturers can no longer hold back. Supply chain sources confirm that the "Pocket - like" products of several leading manufacturers are on the verge of mass production. This marks that the Pocket - style products are no longer the exclusive domain of DJI; they are evolving into the next - generation "new infrastructure" in the imaging industry after smartphones.

However, on the eve of the fierce competition, the Pocket 3 remains the benchmark to be emulated. A remarkable statistic is that in the user profile of the Pocket 3, the proportion of female users has exceeded 50%. This is unprecedented in DJI's brand history, which is filled with carbon fiber, motors, and hardcore technical parameters. It proves that the Pocket 3 has successfully broken the traditional logic of tech products that "emphasize parameters over user experience", achieving a value shift from a professional tool to a lifestyle symbol, and also means that DJI has completed a textbook - level brand expansion.

The success of the Pocket 3 demonstrates the high - premium potential of independent imaging devices - it is not an accessory to mobile phones but a valuable commodity. However, latecomers must face a harsh reality: The first - mover advantage that DJI has built over seven years is not just about hardware stacking but a long - term game involving physical limits, supply chain integration, and understanding user psychology.

The Lonely Pioneer

To understand the current dominance of the Pocket 3, we need to rewind the clock ten years ago to the uncharted "no - man's land".

The story begins in 2014. At that time, DJI dominated the aerial market with its "Phantom" series of drones, but there was no clear concept within the company for ground - based shooting. It wasn't until the product team noticed a strange phenomenon on a foreign geek forum: Some hardcore users used 3D - printed handheld mounts to remove the expensive "Zenmuse" gimbal from the Inspire series of drones and forcefully attach it to a selfie stick for ground - based video shooting. This "violent modification" by users shocked the engineers at DJI's Shenzhen headquarters.

This was not just a form of homage but a strong signal about market demand, which inspired DJI's engineers: Bringing the highly mature drone gimbal technology used in the sky to the ground would be a game - changer in the anti - shake market at that time.

On October 8, 2015, the first - generation integrated handheld gimbal camera, the Osmo, was born. Although it provided extremely stable footage, its form was a bit odd. It was essentially a physical combination of a drone camera head, a handle, and a mobile phone monitor. Users had to hold the machine like a torch in one hand while worrying about the mobile phone connection in the other. It met professional requirements but completely sacrificed portability. The engineers also admitted that the Osmo was too big and heavy. At that time, the product was far from the concept of being "pocket - sized".

The real turning point came in 2016 when the engineers decided to create a smaller and independently - operating Osmo.

In the initial sketches of the first - generation Pocket, the body was shaped like a lipstick. At an early project kick - off meeting, the product manager took out a "Green Arrow" tin candy box, which could be found everywhere in supermarkets, and slapped it on the table, saying, "The main body of our new product cannot be larger than this box."

The logic behind this strict requirement was exciting: Only by being this small would it not take up the space in users' pockets that was meant for AirPods, car keys, or lipsticks. However, it was a nightmare for engineering implementation. This meant that the originally fist - sized three - axis gimbal had to be compressed to the size of a ping - pong ball.

What's even more crazy is the internal structure. To achieve infinite rotation on three axes, the diameter of the gimbal's axle holes was compressed to less than 2 millimeters (only as thick as a matchstick). In this extremely tiny space, engineers needed to fit more than 50 coaxial cables. That's not all. To ensure signal transmission, each cable contained 6 sub - cables, and with the shielding layer, there were a total of more than 300 strands of wires thinner than hair. To make the gimbal smaller, all these wires had to be hidden inside.

During the most difficult stage of R & D, the biggest challenge the engineers faced was "fatigue fracture". If just one wire broke after millions of rotations, the product would be scrapped. It took the R & D team a whole year to solve the balance between physical wiring and product lifespan. This is why it's difficult for latecomers to replicate the Pocket. Most consumer electronics manufacturers are used to avoiding mechanical moving parts because they are prone to failure, but DJI is not afraid to take on this kind of "precision - clock - level" complexity.

However, the loneliest moment didn't happen during the technical breakthrough process but when there was no market consensus.

During the R & D period from 2016 to 2017, the term "Vlog" hardly existed on the Chinese Internet, and you could hardly find any relevant videos on Bilibili. Inside DJI, there were also doubts: In an era when few people shot videos, was it a false demand to create a machine specifically for video shooting? But DJI's senior management foresaw the possibility of the explosion of video social media and decided to support the Pocket project.

In 2018, the first - generation Pocket was launched as scheduled. It verified the feasibility of the product category but also exposed the immaturity of the first - generation product - limited focusing distance, high noise in audio recording, and a narrow field of view. If this had just been a trial for DJI, the story might have ended there.

But DJI chose to persevere. In 2020, the Pocket 2 was launched under pressure. Without changing the body size significantly, the R & D team installed a wider 20mm lens to meet the need for selfies with background, implanted a four - array microphone to reconstruct the audio system, and even designed an all - purpose handle to expand the ecosystem.

The Pocket 1 was a visionary step from 0 to 1, and the Pocket 2 was a tenacious step from 1 to 1.5. In the years when the mass market hadn't fully exploded and Vlogs were still in their infancy, DJI endured the loneliness and evolved the product from being "usable" to "user - friendly" through two generations of product refinement. This years - long technological deep - dive and trial - and - error laid the key foundation for the later success of the Pocket 3 - Only those who are well - prepared can take off when the market opportunity truly arrives.

The Robust Moat

Today, the reason why the Pocket 3 has become the "electronic Moutai" is not by chance but the result of DJI's silent but persistent efforts in technology and overcoming three major challenges during the three - year "quiet period" after the release of the Pocket 2.

The first challenge is image quality, which is a victory of physical optics.

Mobile phone manufacturers have been competing in imaging for a decade but have never been able to break through the physical thickness limit. To maintain a slim body of less than 13mm, smartphones cannot perfectly accommodate a 1 - inch sensor without sacrificing the edge image quality. The emergence of the Pocket 3 is a "physical shock" to mobile phone imaging. Taking advantage of its body length, it achieves a complete flange focal distance in the lens module, fully leveraging the advantages of the 1 - inch large - sensor. This means that in night and low - light environments, the purity and dynamic range provided by the Pocket 3 are the "optical reality" that is difficult to simulate with mobile phone algorithms.

The second challenge is usability, turning the use of the device into a stress - relieving experience.

How to encourage users to take out the camera? DJI's answer is a 2 - inch rotating screen. This is not just a screen but also a switch. To tune the feel of the screen rotation, the structure team tested hundreds of spring designs and finally achieved a crisp mechanical damping similar to opening a "Zippo lighter". This ingenious design turns the power - on action into a stress - relieving ritual. Many users reported that they would even rotate the screen for fun when they had nothing to do. This "addictive design" at the psychological level greatly reduces the psychological threshold for shooting.

The third challenge is aesthetics, winning the hearts of female users.

Before the Pocket 3, DJI was considered a typical "tech - oriented product" brand. However, in this generation of products, DJI did one thing right: redefining "beauty filters and skin tones". Even in the highly competitive market where domestic mobile phones have pushed "portrait beauty filters" to the extreme, the Pocket 3 has emerged as a must - have "1 + 1" travel shooting companion in addition to users' mobile phones, indicating that its image quality is widely recognized and welcomed by the public.

Different from the "aggressive skin - smoothing" algorithms still used by some mobile phones, the Pocket 3 introduces a skin - tone science that conforms to professional imaging aesthetics. It presents a "naturally beautiful" effect, retaining the real texture of the skin while removing flaws, as if restoring the user's true self. This high - end aesthetic orientation has given rise to the exclusive filter trend of the "DJI original camera" on platforms like Xiaohongshu, where female users gather, completely reversing the brand's user gender ratio.

It's true that in the business world, the moat ultimately comes down to cost competition. The challenge of creating products like the Pocket is that it's difficult for manufacturers to make a real profit.

Some manufacturers once carefully disassembled the Pocket 3 and found that if they were to purchase motors, gimbals, and sensors of the same level, the bill - of - materials cost would even exceed the retail price of the Pocket 3.

In fact, DJI's secret to reducing costs lies in extreme vertical integration. It is not just an assembly factory but also a parts manufacturer. From micro - brushless motors to high - precision lenses, and even the most core ISP (Image Signal Processor) chips, DJI has achieved self - research or in - depth customization. Just the self - developed chips alone can reduce costs by more than 30% compared to general solutions. Some manufacturers have calculated that DJI has pushed the price below the industry's cost line. This is the fundamental reason why the Pocket 3 can be priced at a more competitive level than the original 3499 yuan while still maintaining a high profit margin.

Differentiated Positioning in a Prosperous Ecosystem

With the arrival of 2026, it's a foregone conclusion that multiple manufacturers will enter the market. After computational photography has dominated the imaging industry for a decade, we are now experiencing a return to the physical world.

Even with a