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
The latest entry in our 2025 Security Industry Predictions series is Elizabeth Parks, president and chief marketing officer at Parks Associates, which produces research about what’s going on in the ph...
Consumer technology research firm Parks Associates is launching its new Strategic Consulting Unit, a new initiative designed to help companies refine their strategies and product and service offerings...
Parks Associates’ Home Services Dashboard, an ongoing research project analyzing consumer surveys of 8,000 US Internet households, reveals ARPU for traditional services bundled with home Internet incr...
Parks Associates estimates $13 billion in annual revenues for professional monitoring of residential security systems and video devices by 2025. Going forward, we project the strongest growth for prof...
