Infinuvo readies third generation Roomba knockoff competitor

Metapo/Infinuvo, makers of the QQ-1 and QQ-2 robotic vacuums, which sell for cheaper than the Roomba but have never met much success with either the critics or sales, at least in the U.S., is making a third go of it, according to Papagoo.com (Google translation).
The translated page has some hilarious, presumably mistranslations -- claiming the QQ-3 has "fall prevention, anti-obstruction, anti-collision and anti-aircraft fire performance." Anybody here read Chinese who can figure that one out? (Here's the page in the original Chinese.)

And there's this gem: "Built-in dust collection boxes to facilitate the demolition of a good deal with garbage, dirty hands do not."

And:
"Your worry is our biggest happy!"

According to the technical specs, the vacuum has been upgraded to .31 kPa (no idea how that compares to Roomba), noise is 50 decibels, it takes 3.5 hours to charge and a charge lasts 2-3 hours. The undercarriage also seems to have a new brush design.

The main feature of this line of vacuums that I would like to see on the Roomba is the germicidal UV light. Other than that, it looks to me like a ripoff of iRobot's design.


via RobotReviews

Tags: iRobot, Infinuvo, CleanMate

Robotics wars in Massachusetts

Can iRobot, Qinetiq and company get Massachusetts to invest in robotics instead of Biotech? A local reporter talks to Massachusetts robotics executives. (Thx, Micro) Of particular interest is the moving of a key robotics office to Michigan. Having a senator in your corner helps.

Tags: iRobot, robotics

SUGV Wars, iRobot vs. Qinetiq?

Defense Update reports on a recent conference where iRobot debuted its 300 Series SUGV and Qinetiq showed off upgrades to its Dragon Runner SUGV. These two 'bots look headed for a battle royale next year for the biggest robot contracts ever. Pics and more at the link.

Tags: iRobot, SUGV

Robot Actors taking over for humans?

It's beginning. Freaky.

New Biography of Helen Greiner spells her name wrong

Well isn't that the ultimate indignity? First, our beloved Helen Greiner no longer holds the title of chairman of iRobot, and now, some poor schlub writing a biography of her for kids appears to misspell her name in the title!

Ouch.

Helen, if you are reading this, you might want to give author Mary Schulte a call before this goes to print. It's supposedly coming out in June, and the 48-page tome is intended for kids 9-12 as part of the "Innovators Series."

Tags: iRobot, Helen Greiner

HOT Roomba, Scooba, Looj BLACK FRIDAY deals & a lot more

UPDATED w/Scooba and Looj deals and new biography of Helen Greiner! Kitchen Daily Deal has hot deals on Roombas (40% off plus 10% off) and a lot more. LOTS of Thanksgiving/Early Black Friday sales.

Also, Get 10% off Everything at iRobot.com TODAY ONLY plus free shipping over $50 via this coupon link.

Amazon has the Roomba 400 for $89 SHIPPED in its Black Friday sale!

The iRobot Looj is just $76.94 SHIPPED at Overstock.com via this Extra 5% off Black Friday Coupon link! Just search for "Looj" after clicking on the link. It's on sale for Black Friday for $80.99. List is $99. This is the cheapest I've ever seen the Looj Gutter cleaning robot. Do a search for "iRobot" for assorted refurbished iRobot Roomba vacuums. (Note: There is a listing for a biography of Helen Greiner -- name misspelled, due out June 2009, for $27.99. Ironic given she recently left iRobot's employ.)

Amazon's MASSIVE Black Friday Sale is here.

Refurb Scoobas are a CHEAPEST EVER $129 Shipped!

Several Wowwee Robots are 40% off.

PLEO will be on sale for $249 ($100 off) in a "lightning" sale at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST SHARP!

I'll have more updates today, including the hottest deals on all of the robots for the holidays, plus random other specials.

Happy Thanksgiving!
-Thorn

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

Google Roomba Searches Soar

Maybe it's the cat Roomba effect, maybe it's just the beginning of the holiday season, but Roomba searches are soaring, according to Google Trends. (Note, I estimate that iRobot sells about 5-6 Roombas per Scooba and about 50 times the Looj, corresponding almost exactly to their Google search ratios. I expect Looj sales of about 10-15,000 per year, Scooba around 100,000.

Google Trends 1 year chart at this link

5-year chart here.

Tags: iRobot, robot, Google Trends

Roomba Cat Video gets 1.6 million YouTube hits

In case you haven't seen it, this YouTube video is getting HUGE play at YouTube (I even saw it on the front page of Yahoo):

Tags: iRobot, Roomba, YouTube, cats

Killer Robots More Ethical than Human Soldiers?

A robotics researchers says robotic killing machines can make more ethical decisions than flesh and blood soldiers, the New York Times reports.

The researcher noted the stress on soldiers and how they sometimes say civilians should be treated as insurgents, etc.

I'm not convinced. Theoretically, sure. But as we all know, any computer is only as good as the programming. And warfare is about trust. Who do you trust to pull the trigger?

And, we live in a society that loves to be scared by robotic terminators. Are we ready to start creating them? It's one thing to have a soldier in the loop, they way iRobot is creating armed robots like the iRobot Warrior. Or with predator drones. It's quite another to give the ability to kill to a machine. Although perhaps it will start with the ability to subdue? Imagine a giant Pillsbury Doughboy military robot. He walks up to the enemy, is capable of taking fire, and then wraps them up in a big, doughy hug until a human arrives. Or somesuch.

Tags: warbot, robot, terminator

Roomba now available at Best Buy

Roomba is now available at Best Buy, the dominant electronics retailer, which lists the Roomba 530 and for the first time, the Roomba 560, as available in most stores. Best Buy typically only stocks Roombas during the holiday season. The prices are much better in our Roomba Buyers Guide, but Best Buy can move a lot of product.

As I've noted before, Sears will have a $99 Roomba doorbuster on Black Friday, and other retailers will have deals as well. I'll be updating Black Friday robotics deals throughout the week.

Tags: iRobot, Best Buy

Relief rally

Nice to have stocks go up for a change, ain't it?

iRobot dives to fresh lows

iRobot stock, like the rest of the market, is falling like a rock. Down to $7.24 and below that after hours. Yuck. Don't have much else to add.

Tags: iRobot

Will Microsoft buy iRobot?

I think it's very, very possible that iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) could be taken out within the next year if its share price does not recover quickly. The company is now trading well below sales (all time low of $8.50 yesterday as the whole market tanked), and well below IMHO its intrinsic breakup value and the value of its R&D portfolio and assemblage of talent. Why Microsoft? The company is making a big bet on robots, and Bill Gates is a believer. Microsoft would suddenly have an iconic product in its portfolio -- the Roomba. When's the last time Microsoft had an iconic hardware product? The Microsoft mouse? A cash-rich company like Microsoft could easily absorb iRobot into its fold, and just think what Microsoft's deep pockets and brand recognition could offer a company like iRobot: instant credibility, vast marketing opportunities, exposure, global reach, et al. (I could see them keeping the iRobot name, but adding the tagline -- iRobot, a Microsoft company). I imagine Microsoft would plan to quickly sell off the military portfolio to a major defense contractor. (Alternatively, I could see a bidding war emerge first from cash-flush defense contractors for the booming military business, with an auction of the home robots business to a company like Microsoft.) I could even see this whole idea being appealing to CEO Colin Angle if Microsoft handled it right, by promising significant new R&D funding, a place for iRobot products in the new Microsoft retail stores, a continued major role with the company, yada yada yada.

Although folks assume that takeovers are very difficult in this environment -- and they are, naturally, as it is hard to get financing -- Microsoft and any number of Defense contractors would not need financing. They are LOADED with cash, and their stock prices are still RELATIVELY bulletproof. (Apple too for that matter, but Steve Jobs usually likes to design his own gadgets rather than buying somebody else's)...

Another factor that will make doing a deal far easier is that two of the founders -- Helen Greiner and Rodney Brooks -- have already left the company! There is just Colin Angle left -- only one guy that really would have to be convinced that his vision of running his own iRobot fiefdom (with its potentially astronomical rewards down the line but with the constraints and risks of small-company-dom in the near-term) would be better than selling.

Then there is the question of price. Presumably Angle and other long-term investors (such as myself) feel that the stock price is far below the company's long-term potential. So why sell on the cheap? Ride out the storm and in a couple of years, you could see a multibagger home run, right? That's something that I think will weigh on the whole shebang. I don't think the likes of Microsoft wants to go through another melodrama like with Yahoo!, where the silicon valley eggheads foolishly thought they could jerk around Microsoft and get greedy -- and now look where they're sitting!!! They would die to have that $40+ billion offer back on the table. Now they'll be lucky to get $10 billion from Mister Softee. So what price would Angle and company be willing to sell at? $15? Doubt it very much, even though it's nearly a double from here. $20? Pressure for a deal in the 20s would be very high from shareholders, including this one (not that I own enough to make a difference). $30? I seriously doubt Microsoft would want to go anywhere near that high.

So there's the rub, of course. It's always about the money, ain't it? A merger/breakup of iRobot may make absolute sense now with a stock price this low, but the company may not be willing to sell it for anything close to what somebody would be willing to buy it for. (And with modern anti-takeover charters, it is VERY hard to have a hostile takeover nowadays.) I also doubt MSFT or anybody else would be interested in a hostile takeover. The value of iRobot is in its people and its technology (and those HUGE military contracts). Other than the military contracts, do you really want to piss off the brains of the outfit in a disruptive hostile bid? Nope.

Meanwhile, Forbes just spotlighted iRobot's, well, cheapness.

Tags: iRobot, Microsoft, IRBT, stocks, MSFT

iRobot Gets $4.4 million for six R&D grants

More good news: iRobot has received six grants for R&D research worth $4.4 million from the military.
Particularly interesting is the plan to integrate iRobot's PackBot line with unmanned aerial vehicles. Is the future roving packs of ground robots assisted and egged on by a flying eye? Since iRobot does not have any flying robots of its own, it will be interesting to see who they partner with.
Press release clip:

Under these contracts, iRobot will develop technology related to human-robot interaction, unmanned ground and air vehicle coordination, semi-autonomous unmanned ground vehicle tele-operation and navigation, and electronics diagnostics and health monitoring. These technologies will provide increased capabilities for iRobot’s military robots, including PackBot, SUGV and Warrior by making them smarter, easier to use and integrated with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“As support for our military robots continues to grow, agencies from across the DoD look to iRobot as a leader in developing next generation robotics capabilities,” said Joe Dyer, president of iRobot Government and Industrial Robots. “Through awards such as these, iRobot is able to develop new technologies and deliver new capabilities to the warfighter. Keeping our troops safe is our first and foremost strategic priority.”

Momentum continues to build for a potentially blockbuster 2009 for iRobot's military division.
Tags: iRobot, robot

iRobot 2009 Predictions, Anyone?

With the end of the year coming up, and this Christmas season looking to be a bust at U.S. retailers, I'm starting to look towards 2009 and trying to get a sense of iRobot's prospects.

After several years of robust revenue growth, I see 2009 as somewhat of a retrenchment year for iRobot, one focused on fiscal stability, ekeing out profits and competing for major new military contracts. With the global economy slowing, iRobot's best shot at a blockbuster year next year for its stock price lies with the winning of new, long-term military contracts towards the latter half of 2009 -- particularly with the SUGV next-generation infantry robot, which should have very high volume (thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of units) and higher margins than its 3,000 robot xBot/PackBot with FasTac kit contract (where they were competing with a lowball bid from Jameel Ahed).

While it's *possible* that iRobot may consider launching a new consumer robot next year, my guess is such a bid has become unlikely given the economic recession, unless it can be developed very cheaply and has a very high probability of success. (We know that they are in negotiations with their Chinese manufacturers on new products, and we know that they have robotic lawnmowers, hospital cleaners, and certainly other robots under development.)

An iRobot Robomower would be an exciting development, but if it were easy to do at a price point iRobot would like to reach (probably $500?), others would have done it already. Many have tried (Toro, Friendly Robotics, Zucchetti) and while the mowers do the job, Americans have yet to warm to them, and there are now NONE on the market for less than $1,000. (Friendly Robotics raised their prices this year significantly.) The key, I think, will be for iRobot to avoid the need for a perimeter wire, which may be subject to patents held by others and is a big impediment to mass adoption from lazy Americans. (I.E., the promise of labor-free mowing balanced against very labor intensive startup.) Cheaper battery component prices this year could make the development of an affordable mower more feasible.
But that has to be balanced against market concerns, and there is absolutely no sign (other than the patent filing) that iRobot is gearing up for any new product introductions, let alone a major new product.

That leaves us with the current product lineup, which is already plenty big and could even use some pruning. iRobot already appears to be doing this, reducing the number of SKUs for the low-end Roomba 400 Series products (no more Discovery or Scheduler-style units). I have no idea why they are still trying to sell Roomba 400 Series products for $199 at retailers like target, when that would seem to be the best price point for transitioning folks to the bottom-of-the-line Roomba 510 (or even a Roomba 505 ultra-barebones unit with coupons inside directing people to high-margin accessories on the web site?)
iRobot also appears to be transitioning away from the Scooba 5800 to the Scooba 330 as its lower-end Scooba product, with presumably some of the reliability improvements and other enhancements of the 300-series line. As we know from iRobot's comments about recent sellouts of all of the Scoobas on its web site, demand has outstripped the company's expectations and I still see Scooba as an area for growth and profitability. (It is far and away my favorite iRobot appliance in my household.)

But most importantly, it comes down to how you sell iRobot products. Market penetration internationally is taking off, but remains well under the 50% threshold of total sales I would expect, and a clear need for lower prices and more direct sales in key countries like Japan.

As faithful readers know, I think the company has simply dropped the ball until very recently on the prospect of retail stores. As iRobot CEO Colin Angle has belatedly acknowledged, iRobot's products don't sell easily sitting on some store shelf. People remain justifiable skeptical of newfangled contraptions and robots, and need to see them in action, and preferably not just on TV but in person, where they can see and touch them. There currently is no retail store chain that I am aware of that still has demonstrations of iRobot products!

In my opinion, the ONLY way for iRobot to reach those customers is to open up its own retail store chain. The company appears to be taking the first step down that road with the opening of a retail store kiosk in a local mall in Massachusetts near iRobot headquarters. I expect that iRobot's leadership will find the kiosk overrun with families and children who can't get enough of their whirring robots at Christmas. But its one thing to set up a kiosk geared toward driving people to the company's web site that closes Jan. 15, and a far larger task to set up a retail operation with leases, distribution networks, et al. iRobot simply doesn't have the personnel on staff to do this. When Apple went this route, they hired a Gap executive. iRobot may do well to hire a young Apple Store manager and ask him to copy as much as possible! I think iRobot now has a broad enough product line to support robot stores in major malls, and they could supplement the stores with robotic toys, kits, etc. from other companies. Think about how boring today's malls are to most kids and dads. They are always congregating at the Apple store. Well, an iRobot store would give them another cool place to check out. I don't expect to see more than an expansion of iRobot kiosks in 2009, however. It takes some planning, and iRobot will have to hire someone for a real retail effort, and raise some capital, which as we all know is in very short supply these days...

At any rate, here are my VERY early predictions for 2009:

Revenue growth reduced to 10% due to the recession = $335 million.
Falling component costs, increased accessory purchases, lower warranty costs, slowing headcount growth = $10-15 million profit.

Tags: iRobot, robot

Wowwee Wrex The Robotic Junkyard Dog on Sale

UPDATED 11/29/09 WITH A BLOWOUT DEAL!!!
Amazon is selling the Wowee Wrex Robot Dog for $39 shipped!!! That's $70 OFF!

Hammacher is selling the Wowwee Wrex The Robotic Junkyard Dawg for $99.95! This just-released robot toy carries a list price of $149! TIP: Get FREE SHIPPING with coupon code MCSHIP09 or VISAWON08 when you spend $99!
Wrex is a programmable robot, with up to 80 moves! "He cocks his head, twitches his ears, wags his muffler tail, sits, stands, and scampers freely--infrared sensors help him to react to movements, avoid obstacles, and detect and avoid drop-offs like stairs."

Check out the video through the link above!

RobotsRule.com has this handy video review:

iRobot gets $2 million earmark for Warrior

iRobot announced last week it received a $2 million earmark for development of the iRobot Warrior:
"This funding will allow iRobot to expand its product line, which continues to evolve as the need for unmanned ground vehicles grows worldwide," said Joe Dyer, president of iRobot Government and Industrial Robots.

Didn't seem to help the stock much, but then again, almost everything has been dropping lately.

iRobot Gets Another $3.5 million PackBot Order

Another week, another PackBot order. iRobot is busy increasing its backlog and looks to kick off 2009 with a bang!
If anything is recession proof, it's life-saving war robots.
-Thorn
Tags: iRobot

iRobot Announces Burlington Mall Retail Kiosk

The company's first retail kiosk, which we noted earlier, is now open at Burlington Mall in Massachusetts, the company announced.

What is particularly heartening is that the company indicated that this is the start of a new retail strategy, calling this the "first" retail kiosk. Readers will know I have been agitating for Apple-like stores to demonstrate the utility of robots to a skeptical public (just as Apple stores demonstrate the Mac Os to skeptical PC users) for years.

Clip:

Visitors to the iRobot retail kiosk can watch live demos of home robot products and experience first-hand how having a home robot helper around the house makes chores faster and easier. iRobot representatives at the kiosk are also available to assist customers with their indoor or outdoor home robot questions and online purchases.
“We are excited to launch the first iRobot retail kiosk just in time for the holidays. This kiosk delivers customers a unique experience – they can see, feel and touch our products before buying – and as we’ve heard from our customers ‘seeing is believing’,” said Colin Angle, co-founder and chief executive officer of iRobot. "This new retail model also provides our customers more choice on where they can purchase our products. Now customers can buy both online and directly from iRobot or by visiting their favorite iRobot authorized retailer."
“We look forward to hosting this interactive iRobot kiosk here at Burlington Mall,” said Michelle Johnson, local leasing representative from Simon Property Group, operator of Burlington Mall. “We’re thrilled to offer this new experience to our shoppers and are confident the kiosk will be a great success.”

Although the kiosk will close Jan. 15, 2009, presumably this is a pilot project that could be expanded nationwide relatively easily if it is a success (as I imagine it will be.)

-Thorn

Tags: iRobot

Roomba named one of Top 5 gadgets of last 5 years

By PCWorld's gadget columnist at this link. It's in great company, with the iPod/iPhone.

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

iRobot Keeps Ordering More Roombas!

Kin Yat Holdings, the manufacturer of the Roomba 500 Series robots, announced it is continuing to get orders from iRobot to keep producing at the rate of 50,000 units per month. The company also said that it is working with iRobot on developing new home robots, and expects the current period of phenomenal growth to ease off somewhat to a more sustainable pace.

Thx, Microcapfun

Tags: iRobot, Roomba

Cramer takes a pass on IRBT

Cramer recommended not buying IRBT in one of his Lightning Round predictions last night. The analysis wasn't exactly deep as you can guess.

Wowwee Rovio Sells Out!

(UPDATED: The Rovio is back in stock.)

Tags: Rovio, robot