Troubled robot vacuum-cleaner maker iRobot, abandoned by Amazon after regulators effectively doomed the web giant’s takeover offer, has warned investors it may not survive the next 12 months.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    64
    ·
    7 days ago

    Oof, as an American company the rest of the world is boycotting them too.

    Yup, they are toast. I dont think the Americans have realized how much permanent damage Trump has caused.

    • Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      Democrats have known from the moment he was elected. Republicans are starting to figure it out now that they are feeling the effects. Of course, they were the ones who caused it so…

      • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        7 days ago

        They’re really not though, maga fascists, actually believe this is a mere speed bump on the way to the promised land…

        • limelight79@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          6 days ago

          “Many economists are saying that the market was due for a correction…”

          I’ve seen that comment a few times in the last few days. They’ll say ANYTHING to support Dear Leader.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          Yeah but will they still believe that in 4 years? The problem for the republicans now is that they are getting called out by their own voters right now and it’s only March of the year 1.

          So now they have to tread the fine line of not being too supportive of his policies so that they stand re-election chances while at the same time not being so against the policies as to risk Trump’s revenge. It’s a very shitty bed they have to lie in, and I almost feel sorry for them, but they deliberately shit in it themselves, so sod them.

          • Wasp14@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            6 days ago

            All the economists here (Canada) are saying this is an absolute disaster that will cause a recession. No reasonable person believes these tariffs are a net positive.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      7 days ago

      Not only boycotts, it’ll also be a prime target for retaliatory tariffs. So for even those that don’t care about the boycott, a Roomba will cost at least 25% more than the equivalent robot vacuum made in Korea.

    • NightCrawlerProMax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      6 days ago

      I highly doubt his voters will ever realize it. People who voted for him have single digit IQs. Other Americans warned them before hand.

  • Prehensile_cloaca @lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    7 days ago

    The free market is supposed to make this happen. The problem is that we have also built a system that just generates mountains of junk and e-waste. Because our government is feckless and refuses to actually regulate, ya know, anything with a shareholder attached.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      Also because section 1201 of the DMCA means that otherwise useful things become e-waste.

  • StinkySocialist@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    7 days ago

    So the Roomba I bought in 2021 is gonna stop working come 2026… Guess I need an open source vacuum now too 😩

  • skysurfer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    7 days ago

    Will certainly be a bummer if they do go under, I really appreciated their serviceability. Have several in the immediate family that have been going for over 7 years at this point though all kinds of calamities. Each time can I just pop out all the components clean/replace as necessary and get it back in service, good as new.

    • ToiletFlushShowerScream@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      7 days ago

      Agree. While I think there’s been little effort to evolve their products at the same pace as their competitors, I have very much appreciated their servicability.

        • witx@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          6 days ago

          Valetudo, though an absolutely amazing software, is no the replacement I was meaning. I meant we need a fully open source robot, from software to hardware, and that can be adapted. Of course there’s always blobs which are not open source, but that’s the case already for many things

          • Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 days ago

            Absolutely, but that only happens once someone starts a project and gets contributors. Be the change you want to see.

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 days ago

      Chinese mop vacuum combos with dust and water bin are going for $500 these days. It is bonkers how cheap they go. Trying to compete in that market is a lost cause. Better install Valetudo on a Chinese vacuum. Maybe a European OEM could do something similar.

  • endofline@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    6 days ago

    I’m pretty sure somebody will buy the data iRobot robots collected during their cleaning time :-)

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 days ago

      I wonder how valuable that data even is, or to who. I figure the data consists of accumulated cleaning time, location, surface area which could be used to extrapolate some socio economic stats and offer insight how to best market these devices. And also technical data about the devices. Both of which I’d wager are probably useful to companies in the same business.

      We’ll see who buys them in a year :D

      • And009@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 days ago

        Not just surface area, based on algorithms it can also determine type of appliances, furniture layout, routines, habits and a lot more when combined with other datasets.

  • Alpha71@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    Well obviously, they need to get into the lucrative back alley robot vacuum cleaner fight rings. Strap on that knife iRobot vacuum, and lets go!

    • Toribor@corndog.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      edit-2
      7 days ago

      When I got my first robot vacuum I was too impatient to wait for the battery to fully charge before trying it out so when I started it up it was only able to clean a small area before it had to go back to charge. Very exciting though!

      Anyway I went to bed not realizing that once it was fully charged it would resume cleaning. So approximately 1am the vacuum wakes back up and starts cleaning. In my sleep-addled delirious state I had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on. Suddenly it sounded like there was a jet engine in my room and I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from until I jumped out of bed and there were red lights coming at me.

      Saw my life flash before my eyes. Little fucker might as well have been a terminator.

  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    7 days ago

    Slightly off topic but how are y’all at replacing the parts that get worn out?

    I’m still on the 2nd filter it came with and I haven’t replaced any of the brushes, etc.,

    I kind of wish I had a maintenance schedule where I just had the parts delivered and replaced them at set intervals rather than having to guess when it’s worn out.

    But I also don’t want to overspend.

    • PotentialProblem@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      7 days ago

      If you’re using a roomba, the app will typically tell you when to replace your brushes and filter. The filter you can find easy replacements for as well as the little spinning brush. The bigger brushes are harder. You can buy replacements from third party vendors for cheap, but they’re not perfect… and if you have carpeting the roomba will freak out until the third party brushes wear down a bit. After that happens, everything mostly works.

      I usually clean out the roomba every week and replace the brushes every 4 months or so. I run mine nightly though (I have kids).

    • anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      7 days ago

      There are a million third party vendors that sell replacements on amazon, just take a look. Though - and I don’t know for sure having not actually read the article - it seems as though you may also need to change out the firmware so you can keep operating it if iRobot’s servers go down, since all the roombas i’m aware of need internet connectivity to operate.

      If you’re at the point where you need to start replacing parts, it might be worth starting to look into other brands

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    191
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    8 days ago

    Hmm so this entire trick of setting up companies just to be bought by mega corps appears to be not a viable strategy if anti trust law is enforced?

    Edit: apparently this company was set up before sell to mega corp craze got kicked off. I don’t think changes the thesis but this case study doesn’t support it with the strength I suggested

    Hmm as if last 30 years of corpo behavior has been essentially to maintain mega corp dominance via captured regulators and legislators

    We got the capitalism alright but where is the free market at, daddy?

    • Glitchvid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      86
      ·
      8 days ago

      Don’t worry, the new strategy is to string a company along with talks of a buyout, then when their cash runs out and they declare bankruptcy, to buy all the assets on fire sale.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      52
      ·
      7 days ago

      setting up companies just to be bought by mega corps

      iRobot was originally founded all the way back in 1990 and have sold quite a lot of Roomba vacuums, advancing innovation in home automation along the way. I don’t think anyone can ever say that they set up this company for a quick flip corpo pump and dump.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 days ago

        It was originally at up to leech government funding for “weapons research”. I guess I’m old because nobody here seems to remember that.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        Well damn… How did they run the company into the ground?

        Let me guess cheap Chinese robots sold on amazon?

        Thank you providing additional context.

        • scarabic@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          7 days ago

          Honestly I think they suffer a little from early-mover disadvantage.

          “Cheap Chinese” and all the associations that come with that is a little reductive in this case. Roborock vacuums are not actually cheap - they are extraordinarily well-made, featureful, and a good value compared to iRobot.

          Decades ago, iRobot probably spent millions in R&D just to arrive at navigation algorithms that were worse than what you can get with open-source libraries today. They also spent the marketing dollars to convince people these robots were safe and effective. They weren’t always, so there were some ups and downs in that.

          Nowadays the supporting technologies are all much more advanced (and cheaper) and the market for these robots has been created already and is very robust. Companies like Roborock just have to come in and build a good product and they’ll see much faster returns than iRobot did for all those years. They can go straight to lidar, which was probably prohibitive for iRobot for many years, leading iRobot to invest heavily in other technologies which are now a generation behind.

          So in addition to their decades of tech legacy. iRobot is burdened with the expectations of longtime investors who want a big cashout, just as they are getting eaten alive by all this new competition. They pinned their hopes on a big exit and are now holding the bag. It’s not surprising that this all left them in trouble.

    • upandup@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 days ago

      The market is “free” to fuck you and everyone you know on the ass.

      Didn’t you know that’s what “free market“ means?

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 days ago

      oh its free alright. for oligarchs to do whatever the fuck they want.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 days ago

      You just gotta be big enough that you can buy enough people. FAANG is there (though this is Wild West politics nowadays so who the fuck knows what’s gonna happen). But when you own the people writing the laws to control you… they’re not controlling you.