The robots are coming - to a store near you!

Stuart Corner
Monday, 31 December 2007 01:19

Your IT - Entertainment

GPS, giant plasma TVs and other electronic entertainment devices have been selling like hot cakes this Christmas, but in a few years time personal robots could be all the rage. Market research firm, ABI Research is predicting a $US15 billion global market for personal robots by 2015. Australia generally accounts for 2-3 percent of global markets, so that would make the Australian market worth between $300 and $450 million.

ABI Research breaks down the domestic robot market into task and entertainment robots and notes that the latest catalogue from US gadget-retailer Sharper Image is full of robotic products under the slogan "Shop for Bots". But it singles out iRobot as the market leader for domestic task robots.

"iRobot currently dominates this market and is increasingly targeting areas outside the US and expanding its product line," says ABI Research principal analyst, Philip Solis. "Its disciplined approach to keeping products relatively simple and practical has enabled the company to lead the market for task robots."

iRobot's best known product is the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. It was launched in 2002 and by 2006 had racked up sales of over two million units making it the most successful personal robot ever. iRobot also produces Scooba, a robot for cleaning hard floors and Looj, a gutter cleaning robot that in November 2007 won the 2008 International Consumer Electronic Showcase (CES) Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award, receiving the judges' highest scores in the Home Appliance category.

iRobot's newest offering is the ConnectR, 'virtual visiting robot' : a mobile unit incorporating video camera, microphone and speaker that can be remotely controlled over the Internet from a browser. It is billed as "a fun new way to see, talk to and interact with your loved ones, friends and pets – when you can't be there in person." It will retail for  $US199.