Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

IRobot faces a murky future amid rising Roomba competitors

The company is still “number one,” said Elizabeth Parks, president of market research firm Parks Associates in Dallas. But it’s a shaky number one. Parks estimates that iRobot had nearly two-thirds of the robot vacuum market in 2018, but now holds only a 48 percent share. Meanwhile, rival robot makers like SharkNinja, Roborock, Eufy, and Ecovacs have been steadily chipping away.

One possible reason, according to Parks, is concern about data privacy. More advanced versions of the Roomba and other robots use visual sensors to generate detailed maps of the user’s home. This information is shared with the manufacturers to develop more advanced products, but it could also potentially be used to monitor users.

From the article, "IRobot faces a murky future amid rising Roomba competitors" by Hiawatha Bray

Previously In The News

Apple TV Shows Faith

Parks Associates' data of 2015 HDTV streaming video player unit sales spurred AppleInsider to write: "Apple saw a big boost in market share thanks to the launch of the fourth-generation Apple TV with...

Facebook Says, Unlike Netflix, It Does Not Degrade Its Video For Mobile

More than half of all US households with broadband subscribe to Netflix, according to Parks Associates. "I predicted this would occur sooner or later", he continued, noting that subjecting all Inte...

How can service providers shift into the center of the smart home experience?

According to research from Parks Associates, the majority of American consumers (60%) buys or leases their residential gateway from their internet service provider (ISP). However, existing gateways ar...

Energy Bundled Services In Homes

The number of homes with BOTH broadband and solar PV doubled in the last two years as the number of broadband households that have adopted rooftop solar PV panels grew to 4 percent cross nation by the...