I believe the future of drones for private use will be affected by regulation, in what form this regulation comes will depend on how responsible pilots fly and if they have the foresight to inform themselves regarding which types of aircraft share the same airspace, the ability to buy a fly out the box drone such as the phantom which is very easy to control is still quite new,
As both a glider and phantom pilot i see many scenarios where things could go wrong, flying my glider my airspace ranges from almost tree top level to above cloud base or scratching the sunny side of a hill or mountain,
Personally i despise any type forced regulation, we learned years ago the best way to avoid it is self regulation.