Providing Market Intelligence for 40 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...

US FCC Not To Investigate Netflix Throttling Of Some Mobile Consumers

That dichotomy could also spill into an ongoing debate in Washington over how strictly to regulate the broadband companies over customer privacy. "This is outside the Open Internet", Wheeler said. Wel...

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...

Netflix Throttling Did Not Break Rules - FCC

Last week, Netflix acknowledged that it has indeed downgraded video streaming over some mobile networks. "We're at a point where there's so much video traffic going across the Internet", said Glenn...