this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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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.

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[–] kane@femboys.biz 65 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Their products require their app, would this effectively turn their devices useless when the servers die?

I know it supports a single button to start cleaning, but I wonder if that will work properly without being able to call home.

Might be time for people to look for alternatives.

[–] TheGreatSnacku@lemm.ee 47 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It technically still works without the app but it loses features that increase the efficiency of the map, tells it where not to clean, scheduled cleaning, etc.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So basically anything that makes it more useful than just doing it yourself.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Everything that makes it better than a generic copy, yes

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[–] psoul@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I assume this will brick all Roombas past the 800 series. All the scheduling, advanced mapping features etc are hosted on AWS. You’ll be able to press clean to start but that’s pretty much it… That’s unless they open up their software which they probably won’t

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 55 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Another company squandering their patents and market advantage. Reminds me of TiVo.

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I'm glad I waited to replace my old Eufy one. I definitely will not be replacing it with Roomba now.

[–] bouncing_blob@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 days ago

my first thought was aren't they a part of the Military Industrial Complex, how could they possibly go bankrupt? It turns out they sold off that part of their business in 2016 to private equity. Oops.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Pretty much inevitable. Nowadays there are so many robot vacuum cleaners from different brands, and everyone has more or less figured out the tech so they all work pretty well. (I have a Roborock, and have nothing to say about it other than it keeps the floors clean and doesn't cause me any grief.) There's no moat, so consumer market success is purely a matter of manufacturing and cost efficiency, and iRobot obviously would have a huge upfill fight against Samsung, Xiaomi, and a thousand other light consumer goods makers.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

I bought a roborock Q Revo the other week, and it works great at vacuuming and mopping.

I changed its spoken language to Chinese though, to remind me who I'm living with.

I thought this was a funny gag, until I changed my router and wifi, and then had to update the robots wifi connection with all the voice prompts in chinese

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[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

I’m glad my old, non-smart one still works fine. It slams into things and says, “Roomba needs help” or something when it eats a sock or wire I missed. But at least it will outlast the company’s servers.

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