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

Get ready for TiVo in the cloud, DVR box optional

"User experience defines the operator's video services for consumers," said Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates in a statement. "Every pay-TV service and streaming video...

Is Streaming Actually Cheaper Than Cable? We Do the Math

With its contracts and fees, cable TV is nowhere near cheap. Though streaming services are the new norm, paying for multiple subscriptions -- or even a live TV streaming service like DirecTV Stream --...

Deeper Dive—Nothing’s dying in pay TV, it’s just getting segmented and iterated

In fact, I heard all of those questions posed—some of them multiple times—at our first annual Pay TV Show in Denver a few weeks back. The answers were always nuanced, often vaguely unsatisfying … and...

About 20% of U.S. broadband households get live TV through an antenna, Parks Associates says

The percentage of U.S. broadband households that use digital antennas in their homes increased to 20% near the end of 2017, up from 16% in early 2015, according to Parks Associates. "Increasingly,...

‹
1
2
...
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
...
730
731
›