While the tech industry is most conspicuously defined by hardware, software and launches it often finds its most important moments come in the shape of acquisitions.

Google buying start-up Android, Facebook buying WhatsApp spring to mind immediately but soon a whole new set of buys could come into much clearer focus. Get ready for the drones.

Google bought Titan Aerospace, Facebook bought Ascenta and the sights were set firmly on the skies. Amazon developed their own style of delivery drone in house, for the purposes of being a flying robot postman. 

A Titan Aerospace drone, the company now owned by Google.
(credit: IBT)


You may wonder why these titans of technology are so interested in autonomously taking over the skies above us, but no matter how futuristic the aim the motivator is a traditional one; the almighty dollar. Amazon wants to sell you things, Google wants to sell you ads and Facebook wants to sell - essentially, through valuable data - you. 

Still, a money-making agenda, is not necessarily a negative, as democratized internet access and cultural maturation of digital technology could mark a brave new era for the web.

With one billion people in the industrialised world connected as a given, it's the remaining five billion that Google, Facebook and Amazon need to reach. That's where drones come in, where the infrastructure is less sophisticated and coverage is patchier, drones offer the chance to benevolently beam down internet capability to the unconnected masses. 

Facebook has large scale aims “The tantalising aspect of drones is they may be able to offer the same capabilities of satellites” Yael Maguire of Facebook Connectivity Lab, explains. “We’re trying to design a system effectively the same size as a traditional aircraft but which weighs 10 to 100 times less,” Mr Maguire says. Google would likely say much the same.

The challenge is to build ultra-light drones that can charge themselves in the light of the sun and not crash to the ground in the dark of the night. Before drones were ever on the table, Google was already flirting with the idea of using high altitude balloons. 

Amazon is taking a different tact, less concerned with global expansion than satisfying core customers with ultra-efficient drone deliveries. Originally dismissed as a gimmick, Bezos' company is proving serious enough about it to apply pressure on the American government. Legislative changes may be ahead as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles move from only hobbyist and military usage into distinctly rational business choices. Even here in the UK, Ed Balls fears that jobs will be lost to drones and driverless cars. Ed Balls has a history for struggling with technology, never quite living down his most famous tweet - 'Ed Balls'.

Despite all the intrigue that comes with the use of drones, this expansion could actually be part of a much more ambitious strategy. In part II we'll meet a mysterious new acquisition and the latest player to take the scene - Skybox.

 Stay tuned...