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iRobot is coasting on reputation at this point. None of their offerings are competitive with the Chinese manufacturers. I expect them to get sold off to someone
by searealist 3y ago
iRobot is coasting on reputation at this point. None of their offerings are competitive with the Chinese manufacturers. I expect them to get sold off to someone for the Roomba brand in the next 5 years.
- MBCook 3y agoTheir last great move was the auto empty dock, which everyone quickly copied. No advantage left there. Their dual brush system was better. It let them use less suction so they got better results while being quieter. But the patent just expired, so that advantage is gone. Their VSLAM navigation can’t compete with LIDAR. They’re in deep trouble. And if their big plan was “Amazon will save us somehow“ that’s gone too.
- wanderingmind 3y agoSorry but was the auto empty not patented? Unlike software I thought you patented every small increment in the hardware world. If patented and still copied, was it their patent was not tight and allowed loopholes of modifications?
- MBCook 3y agoUnlike the brush thing I’ve never seen it discussed in regards to patents. I think someone else had made one before them, maybe a few. But they didn’t work well. They made the first one that actually worked well. Because of that I’m not sure how much they would be able to patent. Honestly it’s effectively a vacuum to vacuum out your vacuum. Maybe it was just considered obvious by the patent office. I do know that theirs could tell when it was full. Which is a nice feature. The Roborock docks, at least as of my model which is maybe two years old, couldn’t do that. Whether that’s due to design or just cost savings I have no idea.