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

Roku is Making TV Speakers, But They Only Work with Roku TVS

The idea behind this is that if your TV sounds better, people will stream more, which is the metric Roku cares most about, Klarke says. Roku likes to say that it's the US's number one streaming conten...

Ad Blocking Cost Industry USD 41 Bln In 2015

US broadband households watch an average of 3.8 hours of internet video on TV screens each week, accounting for 20 percent of all video viewed on this device, according to research by Parks Associates...

It looks a lot like Amazon wants to hide Alexa inside your web router

“It’s no surprise that the tech giants like Google, Amazon and Samsung have moved into this product category,” says Brad Russell, research director at consulting company Parks Associates. “Home networ...

Could a Button for Improved AI on Galaxy S8 Help Samsung Move Past Its Recent Stumble?

Advanced voice control technology is a growing good bet, especially when it comes to consumers on the younger end of the demographic spectrum. Millennials show particular comfort with voice control of...