Register

I agree with the Privacy Policy

In The News

IRobot faces a murky future amid rising Roomba competitors

February 01, 2024

home automation

The Boston Globe

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

Need help with your TV and smart-home setup? At-home tech support may be the answer.

Patrice Samuels, senior analyst at Parks Associates, a market research company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services, said demand for traditional technology support, like...

HBO Now Has 800,000 Paying Subscribers Since April Launch

“In the past year we keep seeing more and more services coming up, more niche services,” said Glenn Hower, an analyst with market research firm Parks Associates. There’s Netflix, which has been str...

What Can Yahoo's Online Video Assets Do For Verizon?

Distributing its video out to its various websites could be a boon to Yahoo. Parks Associates' Brett Sappington predicted that traditional magazines may make a leap to presenting their content via onl...

Comcast is totally okay with you not having an Xfinity set-top box

“Pay-TV providers want to retain subscribers, so they want to make sure that you stay inside their ecosystem,” says Brett Sappington, a media analyst at Parks Associates. “If you don’t have a reason t...

‹
1
2
...
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
...
730
731
›