Announced last year, the Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum is now available in Japan.
Decades ago, the television cartoon family The Jetsons space-age home featured a robot vacuum to keep the house clean. Now the leading vacuum company Dyson is launching its robo-vac, but the field is already crowded.
Dyson’s 360 Eye robot vacuum is now ready for sale in Japan, according to Forbes, and will be available in other countries in 2016. But other robot vacuums have been on the market for years, so the company will face stiff competition.
For example, the Roomba vacuum has been sold for more than ten years. Other robotic models are made by Samsung, Deebot, and other companies.
Robotic vacuums come in various sizes, and height is an important factor, given that most people want a model that can maneuver under furniture. But taller models also have larger collecting bins, meaning less time spent emptying the machine. Samsung’s PowerBot is bulkier and taller than most, with a large collection canister, and the Dyson also appears to be too tall for some furniture.
Dyson’s entry into the robotic vacuum sector follows the company’s practice of designing to resolve problems that consumers have found in competing models. But problems with robotic vacuums, like running into obstacles that jam the device or getting stuck with clogged airways, may not be possible to engineer away. So the pricey model may not out compete much cheaper versions.