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

How Having Local Storage Can Help You Better Stream Your Favorite Program

The ability to pause live TV and record programs is enabled by a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Many DVRs are integrated into Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) and offered to TV subscribers as a bundled package by...

J.D. Power: OTT Video Satisfaction Is Higher Than For Traditional Pay-TV

The results really shouldn’t be very surprising; numerous market research studies have been indicating as much for quite some time now. Just over a year ago, Parks Associates forecast that OTT vide...

Parks: Internet-Connected Entertainment Devices Now in Close to 75% of U.S. Homes

Internet-connected entertainment devices rose 11% since 2015, according to new market data from Parks Associates. The number of U.S. broadband households that make use of at least one Internet-connect...

Virtual Reality Headset Penetration to Reach 81 Million by 2020

Not surprisingly, young adult Millennials will fuel rapid growth in VR sales and usage, according to recently released research from Parks Associates. Twelve percent of male and five percent of female...