After selling a barely disguised version of the hit DJI Osmo Pocket 3 in the United States last year, Xtra Technology seemed ready to sneak in its version of the new dual-lens Osmo Pocket 4 Pro, too. But today, Xtra has abruptly removed the new Xtra Muse 2 Pro from its website landing page, is pausing preorders indefinitely, and says it’ll refund all the $20 deposits that it’s already collected.
Just days after showing off the camera at a Los Angeles launch event, the company is no longer necessarily committing to launch at all: “XTRA has not made a final announcement regarding future product availability. We have not announced a new product launch timeline at this time. Further information will be shared separately once the relevant plans are confirmed,” it writes.
Xtra says the move is because “we are unable to confirm a reliable launch timeline at this stage,” but there’s likely another reason behind that. Over the past two weeks, we’ve explained how an embarrassed FCC is cracking down on companies including Xtra for helping banned DJI technology enter the United States.
Without FCC authorization, Xtra cannot legally import, sell, or market a radio-equipped gadget in the US.
To be clear, the US government has never justified its drone ban. We haven’t seen it share a shred of public evidence that Chinese consumer drones pose a national security threat, and it certainly hasn’t explained why pocket cameras would be caught up in that drone ban.
But ahead of the ban, it seems DJI’s reaction was to flood the market with new brands that sell its tech. Xtra already sells five different versions of DJI cameras, while Skyrover is the most prominent of many new drone brands selling DJI tech. Skyrover even made it into Best Buy, not to mention Amazon.
On July 10th, the FCC proposed a $25,000 fine against Xtra and each of Skyrover’s suppliers for failing to respond to questions about where, exactly, their technology actually comes from. On July 17th, the FCC proposed to retroactively ban those companies from continuing to sell existing products, too.
It’s not clear if Xtra’s products have actually been rejected by the FCC yet. Technically, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro was approved by the FCC before the drone ban came down last December, and Xtra’s version was also approved on June 17th. But those FCC documents no longer appear in FCC search results — we only have them because bots scraped them before they mysteriously disappeared. The FCC did not reply to our requests for comment.
Anyhow, it’s unlikely that Xtra will ever be able to “unpause” its reservations for the Muse 2 Pro. It’s still selling its other cameras for now.
If you did put down a reservation for the Muse 2 Pro, the company’s FAQ page explains that you’ll get a “single-use 10% courtesy discount code as an apology for the inconvenience caused by the pause of the Early Bird program,” one that you have to use within 30 days, only at Xtra’s online storefront.
The company says it’ll automatically issue refunds, within 5 to 10 business days, to your original payment method.
Last year, we showed you visually just how identical the Xtra Muse and DJI Osmo Pocket 3 truly are:
Xtra didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Questions we’ve sent to DJI about Xtra, and other “DJI front companies,” remain unanswered.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
