Will iRobot’s reinvention of the Roomba be at the expense of its history of innovation?

When I saw iRobot’s latest robot vacuums announced this week, my first thought was, “These don’t look like Roombas; they look like midrange models from Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame.” Of course, as the original robot vacuum manufacturer, iRobot’s products likely inspired the design of most of its competitors. But Roombas have always had a uniqueness that sets them apart from the crowd.

With these new models, the company is capitulating to the homogeneity of the current crop of vacuums, sacrificing many of its signature features and moving from high-end to middle-of-the-road in a quest to recapture a bigger slice of the market.

Long known for its innovation in home robotics, iRobot is marketing its new line as “breakthrough new products.” But the only notable innovation I’ve seen so far is an onboard dust compacting bin. The rest is largely a reheat of every midrange robot vacuum on the market today.

Then, a day after launching eight new robot vacuums — the biggest product launch in its history — iRobot warned that it was in such dire financial straits that it could shut down in 12 months. Suddenly, it all became clear.

They don’t look like Roombas because they aren’t the Roombas I know and have recommended for years. According to iRobot’s financial reports published this week, the company has completely restructured its supply chain in a bid for profitability. It’s moved production to a single manufacturer, Shenzhen Picea Robotics, a Chinese-based ODM that makes vacuums for various brands, including its own, under the name 3irobotix. Essentially, iRobot is making entirely new Roombas. But this shift isn’t about innovation — it’s about cost cutting and survival.

iRobot CEO Gary Cohen says the new products will boost profits compared to its legacy products. But, in the process, they risk sacrificing the uniqueness that sets Roombas apart.

Once a market leader, iRobot has struggled amid fierce competition and a failed $1.7 billion Amazon acquisition. Last year, regulators decided that an iRobot with Amazon’s power behind it could become the 800-pound gorilla in the room and scuppered the deal. This left the company without its visionary CEO and cofounder Colin Angle, forced to lay off more than half its staff, and with a mountain of debt.

In response, and essentially to survive, the company is producing products that look like every other bot on the block and has adopted several new features found on those models. These include lidar navigation, spinning mop pads, and white robots. (I can understand the first two, but don’t buy a white robot vacuum unless you really enjoy cleaning your robot vacuum.)

Consumers have been asking for these features for years, and a lack of them may have driven many to opt for one of its competitors over a Roomba — the company saw a 44 percent decline in revenue last quarter compared to the same time the previous year. But in the process, and based on these newest bots, it looks like it’s abandoned much of what makes it unique — its excellent dual rubber roller brushes, well-developed and reliable vSLAM navigation, impressive retractable mop system, and stylish auto-empty docks.

I asked iRobot for a comment on why the new Roombas so closely resemble the Chinese competition. It pointed out that iRobot set the design standard for consumer robots, so, in fact, it’s the competition that’s been copying it.

“Other robot vacuums and mopping solutions across the industry have similar design features to Roomba because the other manufacturers have yet to develop a new, transformative form factor,” Insun Hong, industrial design director at iRobot since 2021, said in an email. While that may have been true five years ago, most of Roomba’s new features existed on the competition before they came to Roombas.

Adding lidar and spinning mopping pads to Roombas may well make them more popular, cost iRobot less, and make for excellent robotic vacuums (something we won’t know until we can test them). But I’m skeptical.

How often has a company completely retooled its products to be significantly cheaper to develop and ended up with something much better? But that appears to be what iRobot is trying to do here.

The company’s annual report says its operational restructuring plan is “designed to more closely align our cost structure with near-term revenue expectations with the goal of improved profitability. Leveraging a new asset-light model, we began to streamline our supply chain to set us up for speed and scale while relying on our partners and contract manufacturers to provide non-core engineering functions.”

The company says it plans to “continue to invest in software intelligence, higher-value robotics, computer vision, [and] machine learning.” But that’s going to be tough to do with a vastly reduced workforce, a slashed R&D budget, and the offshoring of some engineering to “lower-cost regions.”

Software is one area in which iRobot has remained dominant. Its app has traditionally been clear, easy to use, and more reliable than its competitors. Its AI-powered obstacle detection is a leader in the industry, and it has developed several other machine learning technologies that make its robots better cleaners, such as Dirt Detect, which recognizes dirty areas and focuses more time on them.

Hopefully, software will remain iRobot’s strong suit and be a way to differentiate. It’s already added AI detection to one of its new models, which helps the robot avoid pet waste catastrophes and prevent it from aborting its mission because you left a sock in the living room.

Along with the new products, the company announced a new app. However, the new Roomba Home app will only work with its latest models; everyone else will continue to use the iRobot app. It’s a worrying sign the company is leaving its legacy products behind. (In terms of development, iRobot told me it has no plans to stop supporting any of its existing products.)

While this all may well be the right move for the company considering its current financial state, I’m sad to see this shift away from what has made Roomba “Roomba.” This is the company that essentially invented the robot vacuum more than 20 years ago — and invented the modern self-emptying bin, the floor mopping robot, and the idea of a robot vacuum having a “brain.”

There’s no doubt iRobot made missteps over the years. It should have jumped on the two-in-one trend sooner. It took too long to develop a multifunction dock, and while an engineering marvel, its retractable mop solution doesn’t actually mop your floors very efficiently. (But spinning mopping pads are also last year’s thing; the new innovation is retractable roller mops.)

I don’t agree that iRobot should have switched to lidar sooner — its vSLAM navigation may be slower, but it’s more reliable. And I don’t think it failed to innovate. I’m positive there are prototypes in iRobot’s HQ in Bedford, Massachusetts, with retractable roller mops, more advanced camera-based navigation, and arms and legs to climb all over your house.

But the company did move too slowly. It was overtaken on one side by Chinese companies like Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs and their nonstop innovations and on the other side by commodity no-name bots you can buy on Amazon for under $200.

There was a moment a year or so ago when iRobot could have positioned itself as the high-end leader in smart home robotics house cleaners. It’s exciting to think where its innovation could have gone, with the power of Amazon behind it. But losing that deal and its visionary leadership left it adrift, and now it’s bouncing between its past and its future, trying to find where it fits today.