Amazon officially calls off the iRobot deal
Can the brand be salvaged or should we pour out one last dustbin for Roomba?
Friends, I think I've finally run out of patience with my robot vacuum.
But whom do I blame for the consistent decline in performance of my iRobot Roomba i7+ vacuum? Is it just like any other appliance that has run its course and needs to be replaced, or is there something else going on here?
Well, perhaps Amazon is to blame for the current state of the once dominant Roomba.
My iRobot story
Let's start at the beginning. As a self-described "optimistic futurist" I was actually fairly late to the robot vacuum party. Prior to 2018, I lived in apartments that were small enough to not really need any automated cleaning help. I did have a Dyson vacuum that felt high-tech enough even if I had to push it around the room like a neanderthal.
But after a move into a larger space, it was time for me to upgrade to something that was less hands-on. And at the time, iRobot was still the dominant name in robot cleaning. According to Statista, iRobot commanded a 64 percent market share in 2016 which likely hadn't fallen off much when I was making my decision in 2018. What was the top-of-the-line model that iRobot offered? It was the i7+ that came with its own amazing cleaning base that hardly ever needed to be emptied. High price be damned, it was the holy grail for lazy slobs everywhere with dollars to burn!
I was pretty darn happy with my decision at first. The robot was able to map out our home after only a few runs with a good deal of accuracy. It ran on a regular schedule and didn't require a whole lot of assistance from me. The dust bin in the cleaning base easily outpaced its suggested two-month disposal time. I could just shout out a command to one of my smart speakers if I wanted the little gadget to go clean a room or even a very specific zone after an isolated spill. Things were going so well that I even picked up a little mopping companion for the primary robot. It really felt like the future had arrived and I was the unquestioned ruler of a robot cleaning army.
Oh but how things have changed! I had heard that Amazon was looking to purchase iRobot back in 2022 and I was a little nervous as I am whenever one of the massive tech giants absorbs a company that seemed to be doing just fine on its own. Sure, I thought that I may lose the ability to control my Roomba using Google Assistant as Amazon would surely push people to use Alexa instead. But aside from that, I figured it would continue to be smooth sailing with my little bot. Actually, it seemed like Amazon could give the company a nice shot in the arm with easily scheduled Prime-shipped replacement parts or more robust app features.
But alas, those positive changes never materialized. Amazon was embroiled in a fierce legal battle in the EU when regulators feared that an Amazon-iRobot marriage would significantly limit competition in the automated cleaning space. That seems like a fair assessment and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with it. Unfortunately, the stagnation of the deal also lead to stagnation in app updates and innovative new product releases for iRobot. In fact, it ultimately stunted innovation at iRobot while the acquisition was in limbo, and spurred other companies to gain ground on the Roomba.
Personally, I started to see more confusing errors pop-up on my iRobot app. When moving my trusty i7 over to our new home, it had a lot of trouble with its mapping features. Phantom rooms and dead zones were popping up on its virtual map and it was dying in the middle of the floor and claiming to be "trapped" in the app error message despite having ample room in all directions.
So what went wrong here? It may have been as simple as just bad timing. It's never a good thing when legal proceedings hold up a tech acquisition. Obviously the parent company doesn't want to (or legally can't) invest any new capital into the smaller brand until the deal is 100 percent complete. And the company being acquired may halt all product development until its new daddy has a say in the plans. At best, it leads to a company in a holding pattern for a few months, but at worst it can mean upsetting loyal customers and losing precious ground to competitors while waiting for an outcome that isn’t guaranteed.
So rather than wait any longer for a resolution, Amazon has officially pulled the plug on the deal. iRobot is left to its literal own devices to try to regroup but it won't be easy. Their founder and CEO is out, there are rumors that they will be cutting the size of their workforce by a 3rd, and they're abandoning all non-essential development including the expansion into robot lawnmowers, air purifiers, and other smart tech.
It's a sad day for those of us who have Roombas trolling around our homes. My i7+ is oddly still somewhat useful. There are days when it just skips its scheduled cleaning time for no clear reason and I assume it's fully dead. Then I hear a few beeps and bloops and it turns in another solid cleaning session the next week without any intervention on my part. It really is one of the most maddening end-of-life runs I've seen on any piece of tech. Whenever I've decided to forget it and move on, it comes springing back to life. Then it gives me some other confusing error messages and decides to not charge its batteries for a few days.
On the bright side, there are far more robot vacuum options than there were back in 2018. iRobot's lead in innovation has evaporated as a new pack of Chinese competitors (Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame Technology to name a few) have brought some great bots to market. Things like combination vacuum and mop with self-cleaning and drying mop heads are becoming standard. Gone are the days of needing a team of robo servants when things can be done by one magic machine. Lidar technology makes navigation a breeze and even allows for these vacuums to become full-blown, all-seeing, remote security guards if needed.
We're really heading into an exciting new age of robotic cleaning and it's a shame that iRobot likely won't be around to see it. I wonder how Donald Duck Instant Millionaire feels about iRobot's demise? I hope his robotic mop with legs is still holding up.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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