Today, iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT) CEO and co-founder Colin Angle spoke as the keynote at the Digital Life expo in New York City's Jacob Javits Center. He announced not one, but two new robotic products: the Looj, a gutter cleaning robot, and the ConnectR, a virtual visiting robot. He first warmed up the crowd by reminding them of the television cartoon The Jetsons, which was once a vision of futuristic household robots. He said that although his robots were not humanoids, they are "fantastically useful." He said, "Goodbye Jetsons, goodbye Hollywood robots." And hello new product announcements.
After running through the company's current product line -- which features the Roomba, a vacuuming robot, the Scooba, a floor washing robot, the Dirt Dog, a shop sweeping robot, and the Verro, a pool cleaning robot -- Angle detailed the two new robots.
First, he introduced the gutter cleaning Looj, which he described as a "mini tank." It is low profile, meaning it can drive under gutter straps, as well as water proof, making for easy cleaning. The Looj is remote controlled and drives in forward and reverse, meaning you only need to climb a ladder once to drop it and retrieve it. It even comes with an optional belt attachment carrying case, making for safe ladder climbing. It retails for $99 ($129 with the belt attachment carrying case), starting today on iRobot.com, and will be at "select retailers shortly."
Then he introduced the ConnectR, a "thought provoking" device giving the owner "telepresence." The device looks similar to the Roomba and Scooba, but is meant for interactive communication. It has a camera and VoIP technology built in, and only requires a wireless router to function. It can be best described as a video teleconferencing robot, that gives the remote user, using a computer anywhere, the ability to control movement and camera functionality while seeing and hearing what the robot does. As Angle said, the ConnectR "allows you to call a place rather than a person." This robot launches early next year and will cost $499, although the pilot program is starting this year for a limited number of people. (To try to join the pilot program, visit iRobot's website.)
The market has reacted positively to iRobot's announcement, as the stock is up 4.67% in trading today.
I caught up with CEO Colin Angle after the keynote and got a few words from him. He, not surprisingly, wouldn't say what the next robot idea from the company would be, although he did admit to thinking about the challenges of lawn mowing and laundry folding. He added that while lawns of the future will definitely be mowed by robots, there was no timetable on when we would see it happen.
He did want to stress that these initial launches of the Looj and the ConnectR would not be material for the company in '07, but would be to test and get feedback for them. One of the particular challenges with the ConnectR is finding the target buying audience. Although the company is looking at travelling adults with children, they also see grandparents and pet lovers as potential ConnectR consumers.
Finally, discussing the problems of convincing the general public that these robots can work, Angle left me with this thought: "If nothing else, we are passionate about being the real deal."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-27-2007 @ 6:30PM
Bob said...
Irobots are the largest piece of crap on market. I purchased about a year ago, it was suppose to mop my kitchen floor we tried and tried to get to work to no avail. It would not clean the complete floor it would zig zag all over the kitchen but ever hit the entire floor. Then we ran out of soap, there is none to be found, we called the company and was told this place and that place has the soap, we call they don’t have any. We call the company back now they want us to buy it from them, I’m in California they’re back each now that a smart buy. Not only that the irobot cost a lot not to work. I was really surprised when it didn’t work because Sharper Image sold it. Any way long story short I boxed the piece of crap back sent it to the CEO with a couple idea on what he could do with it. You know for Customer Service he didn’t have any of the people working for sit down and apologize or let us help you they just walked outside opened the dumpster again threw another away