iRobot’s revenue has tanked and it’s almost out of cash
www.theverge.com
What will this mean for your Roomba?

Things continue to look bleak for the original robot vacuum maker. iRobot’s third-quarter results, released last week, show that revenue is down and “well below our internal expectations due to continuing market headwinds, ongoing production delays, and unforeseen shipping disruptions,” said Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO, in a press release.

This meant they had to spend more cash and are now down to under $25 million. “At this time, the Company has no sources upon which it can draw for additional capital,” said Cohen.

The Roomba manufacturer has been struggling for several years in the face of increased competition from Chinese manufacturers. A sale to Amazon in 2022 looked to be its lifeline; however, regulatory scrutiny scuppered the deal, and the company was left in further turmoil. It laid off over 30 percent of its staff, lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, and was left with substantial debt as a result of the fallout.

This year, iRobot launched an entirely new line of robot vacuums, ostensibly to better compete with companies like Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame, adding lidar navigation to its line for the first time (over VSLAM). The new models look significantly different from the original Roombas and more like their competitors. They also use a different app with fewer features, but added some new hardware features the previous models lacked, including spinning mop pads and a roller mop.

In a regulatory filing earlier this month, the company warned it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection following the breakdown of advanced negotiations with a potential buyer, and if it couldn’t secure additional funding.

Roomba customers are understandably concerned about the impact these current financial troubles might have on their home cleaning robots.

Earlier this month, fellow American robot vacuum manufacturer Neato, which shut down in 2023, pulled the plug on its cloud services, leaving its robots unable to communicate with the Neato app. However, the vacuums can still be controlled manually.

Similarly, if iRobot goes out of business and its cloud shuts down, most Roombas should still continue to work in offline mode — pressing the physical button on the robot to start, stop, and dock it. However, they likely wouldn’t be controllable via the app for features like scheduling or specific room cleaning, or via voice commands. This potential dilemma just further highlights that cloud-connected devices should be enhanced by connectivity, not reliant on it.

  • Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.worldEnglish
    881·
    20 days ago

    Oh look, another example of a product that worked fine without internet connectivity and was improved by adding extra bullshit you don’t actually need that then gets worse when those features can’t function properly because their server is offline.

    We got a basic roomba 650 (the one that crashes into stuff and randomly cleans) like 10 years ago and it still works fine (well, as well as it ever worked which wasn’t great), you program the time and day of the week with physical buttons, and leave it alone.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    19 days ago

    Customers shouldn’t need to be concerned because the company going down should not brick your PHYSICAL PRODUCTS

    And yet, here we are

    • pHr34kY@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      19 days ago

      I’ve got one, and it works well enough when offline.

      If not, I could set up Home Assistant and self-host it.

      It’s a shame, as Mozilla gave iRobot one of the better privacy ratings. That’s the only reason I allowed it in my house to begin with.

    • definitemaybe@lemmy.caEnglish
      51·
      19 days ago

      But, clearly, a Google Home or Amazon Alexa needs cloud connectivity to function. And short of Stop Killing Games regulations forcing companies to release software to keep purchases functional after server shutdowns, there’s going to be no alternative when they shut down the servers.

      But where do we draw the line?

      A smart fridge should obviously keep working without cloud connectivity, since cloud features aren’t relevant to its core functionality.

      A spyware house-scanning vacuum robot, on the other hand, that stores video of your entire house on web servers “to map your home” may not have the processing power to model the home based on its surveillance video recordings. So, is it reasonable, then, that these break when servers go offline?

      Without any regulations, the answer is just “consumers can go fuck themselves”, which clearly isn’t a good answer.

    • BlindFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      18 days ago

      My lil neato bot from 2017/2018ish makes a perimeter map around my place each time it deploys, then makes back and forth sweeps. It’s got a built in weekly timer by the quarter hour to schedule sweeps. It beeps at me when its bin is full. Why do robot vacuums need the internet?

    • nfreak@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      19 days ago

      I’ve been eyeballing this, doesn’t seem too difficult for most compatible models either. Might be a little after Christmas project

  • buddascrayon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    19 days ago

    This potential dilemma just further highlights that cloud-connected devices should be enhanced by connectivity, not reliant on it.

    This should be everyone’s takeaway.

    The problem isn’t the company possibly going out of business, its the loss of online service nerfing the device that is the real issue.

    • ready_for_qa@programming.devEnglish
      4·
      19 days ago

      We could have consumer protection laws that mandate when a service that a consumer product relies on is no longer being served by the company, they must release the source code as FOSS for the community to carry it on if they so chose. This could apply to video game servers as well as robot vacuums.

    • non_burglar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      19 days ago

      Kodak said “we don’t believe digital photography will take over” and iRobot is like “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas”

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        19 days ago

        They fucked up by making their robots last seemingly forever, due to the fact they spy on you and get stuck every 15 mins so you never want to turn them on.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
    151·
    19 days ago

    This is why IoT isn’t sustainable. If you don’t have total control you’re fucked.

    • dieTasse@feddit.orgEnglish
      85·
      19 days ago

      Sure, if you want China to have videos of you, your kids and your home. Roomba so far has the “best” privacy policy from all the companies. I am not saying its warranted, it never is with proprietary software/hardware, but Chinese companies are known for ignoring laws regarding privacy.

        • dieTasse@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          18 days ago

          I don’t trust the biggest guys on the market… I wouldn’t trust iRobot if Amazon did acquire it. But smaller companies do not have enough leverage on EU (I am from EU). They have to adhere, there are audits that must be made and I somehow trust more in audits and rule adherence on US side rather than the Chinese ones.

      • Redredme@lemmy.worldEnglish
        92·
        18 days ago

        From a non US Perspective (most of the world) this is a non issue.

        Because for the rest of the world the answer to this dilemma boils down to:

        Do you want to be shook down by the big guy in the left corner with the can of coke in his hand or do you prefer to be fucked over by that big Asian guy in the right corner who’s slurping on his bubble tea?

        I choose the one who demands the least.

  • Credibly_Human@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    18 days ago

    There is at least one Robo vac that does not rely on the cloud, and personally I can’t imagine feeling comfortable with a robovac being cloud connected for no reason.

  • stoly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    19 days ago

    Do people genuinely rely on these or are they really just a novelty?

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
      13·
      19 days ago

      rely? no

      find it a useful assist? yes

      the Roomba can:

      • get under couches that my other vacuums cannot

      • deal with 90% of the average mess (dog hair and miscellaneous crumbs) without my input

      • pick up the little bits that you can never manage to sweep into a dust pan

      • do this within about 10-20% of the time it would take me to do it myself

      things it cannot do:

      • vacuum carpets

      • get into corners

      • deal with large messes

      typically, I will sweep crumbs and crap out of corners into the middle of a room. I do this all the way around this level of the house in under two minutes, which includes picking up the large clumps of fluffy dog hair that have accumulated along the walls and tossing them in the garbage and putting the broom back. I can then run the Roomba, and the only thing left to do after is brush/vacuum the carpets & rugs well.

      I also like the mopbot thingy because that definitely takes less time than doing it myself

      • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        19 days ago

        Same, I have a Roborock and it cleans my house 3 times a week, mops and vacuums. I still need to vaccums in corners and narrow spots occasionally but the bot does 95% of the work for me

    • Croquette@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      19 days ago

      If the apartment/house layout is good for the roomba, it is a great tool. It doesn’t replace vacuuming and floor washing, but it does reduce the dirtness on the floor.

    • 🔰Hurling⚜️Durling🔱@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      19 days ago

      Don’t have a roomba (shark owner) and me and my two other vacuum cleaners depend on my robot vacuum to help pickup both my godwn retriever and corgi hair on a daily basis.

    • 0000@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      19 days ago

      It makes my life easier for sure. I just start it when I head outside for work, errands, etc, and it’s done by the time I get back home.

    • Evotech@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      18 days ago

      I do rely on them. I have two. They basically enable me to never vacuum myself the last 6 years

      Honestly I couldn’t imagine life without them anymore

    • pix_wbmr@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      19 days ago

      I have a dog and a cat. It saves me ~3 hours of work every month. I make abput 21€ per hour. So that’s basically 63€ I saved monthly.

        • pix_wbmr@feddit.orgEnglish
          1·
          18 days ago

          Those 3 hours are hours I invest in my business generating a second income.

          Every hour you spend doing chores could be hours spend enjoying your free time or working on projects.

          There is no glory in vacuuming… if I can automate it, I will