iRobot Unveils New Roomba Models

In an e-mail to iRobot customers and fanboys, iRobot Corporation has announced 3 new Roomba models. The Roomba 532 and 562 Pet Series robots are dubbed as "Your new best friend in hairy situations" while the Roomba 610 Professional Series "Your new employee of the month". Both the Pet Series and the Professional Series appear to have all of the things we love about Roomba, only beefed up to handle heavy duty dirt. IRobot says this of the 610 "...designed to tackle large spaces and heavily trafficked areas." while the 562 is said to "...features the latest Roomba innovations plus special features to help tackle hairy situations." I've often wondered when iRobot would take the Roomba outside of the home and into commercial operations, now business owners can love Roomba as much as we love our trusty little robots at home!

Frankenstein Complex and iRobot's future

Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm has a theory about stagnant sales at iRobot, and it's called the Frankenstein Complex. Isaac Asimov coined the phrase to describe the fear of robots and Kelleher thinks it explains why we North Americans have not embraced the machines in our homes like the Japanese have in theirs. In his post Kelleher says "The Burlington, Mass., company went public nearly two years ago and its share price has spent much of last year below the $24 offering price. Revenue from consumer products –60% of iRobot’s revenue last year – fell 1% in the first half of 2007 from a year ago."

My experience with robots is more in the software realm of chat robots, but I tend to agree that they can be seen as a little creepy by some. I have found that the more human looking, the creepier they get. I just don't think that we (collective) are afraid of the Roomba, it's probably more to do with the fact that they are not as easily obtained as say a Dyson, and also not really mass marketed. I'd venture a guess that most people have never heard of them! I'd love one, but until my old upright throws in the towel I'm not motivated enough to purchase. On the other hand, the ConnectR and perhaps even the Looj are both something that I don't already have, fill a gap that is not met by any other device, and therefore I might be convinced to purchase.

Interesting theory though.