Samsung Partners With Drone Firm to Deliver Devices in Minutes
Samsung Electronics announced a new partnership today, March 24, with Manna Drone Delivery, which sees it join other tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Uber in aiming to provide drone delivery to its customers worldwide.
The partnership will see smartphone purchases delivered by drone within 3 minutes in the town of Oranmore, Ireland, where the service is being trialed.
The move sees "drone delivery made available to Irish customers when purchasing the latest range of Galaxy devices (including the S21 Ultra, the Galaxy Buds Pro, the Galaxy Tab S7, the Galaxy Watch 3, and Samsung’s recently launched Galaxy A Series)," the South Korean mobile giant explained in a press statement.

Though the service is only currently available in Oranmore, a Manna Drone Delivery spokesperson said the company is "keen to expand this service nationwide in the future."
'No better time' to provide contactless delivery alternative
Manna Drone Delivery uses customized aerospace-grade drones that fly at altitudes of 164 to 262 feet and at speeds in excess of 60 kph (37 mph) for extremely fast contact-free delivery.
The company has also been working with United Kingdom supermarket chain Tesco and other local businesses to deliver groceries, books, and medicine to people in the area.

"Superior customer experience is at the heart of what we do and with this new service we are embracing what we believe will be the future of retail," Eamonn Grant, Head of Online for Samsung Ireland said. "In the current environment, there is no better time to provide a contactless alternative to ‘click and collect’ and we are really thrilled to be partnering Manna to achieve this."
Though the service is currently extremely local, its success could lead to a much wider uptake in drone delivery if Samsung decides to expand the service globally. With the VTOL (vertical take off and landing) industry set to truly take off, firms such as Amazon, Uber, as well as dozens of new startups have heavily invested in drones to deliver goods and services straight to our doorsteps.