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

Twitter teams up with Bloomberg on 24/7 streaming news; stock jumps

Twitter is looking for ways to grow its video services and garner more video advertising dollars. It sees live news as a natural focus. In an internal document obtained by Bloomberg last year, Twitter...

Roku IPO: Shares jump 68% as investors bet the firm can fend off Amazon, Apple and Google

Analysts say Roku has shown great upside by diversifying its revenue away from chiefly hardware to partnerships and advertising over its platform. “Over the past two-and-a-half years, Roku has expa...

Roku IPO: Shares jump 68 percent as investors bet firm can fend off rivals

Analysts say Roku has shown great upside by diversifying its revenue away from chiefly hardware to partnerships and advertising over its platform. "Over the past two-and-a-half years, Roku has expa...

Mozilla Trumpets Altered Reality Browser

Virtual reality needs its own kind of Web browser because the Web currently is designed for 2D, said Hunter Sappington, a researcher with Parks Associates. "As solutions like Mozilla's become more...