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Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

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Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#651

Post by samschooler »

furyg3 wrote: post #136

Are there any good robo-vacuum cleaners that will still clean your floor if the internet is down? I've had my Miele vacuum cleaner for 15 years now, and I bought it second hand. I can still buy bags and filters for it, and when the floor roller piece broke (something heavy fell on it) I was able to buy a replacement one for cheap. I see no reason why it can't go another 10 years. It feels like a very low probability…

I have a roomba i3, it's blocked at the network level, but it is connected to my home assistant instance. It can clean and map rooms but doesn't communicate with the cloud because of the network blocking.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#652

Post by jonfw »

keeda wrote: post #635
SoftTalker wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No-name chinese cloners selling on Amazon don't care about patents.

While those patents are not enforceable in China (unless equivalents were also filed in China -- unsure if they would be worth much) they would be when imported to the US. This is one of the reasons the ITC exists, and it played a prominent role during the smartphone patent wars. So at least the US market would be protected from knock-offs.

In theory, sure. In practice? Chinese companies ignore your patent, you waste money suing, it takes a long time.

If you win? Good luck collecting damages from China, and have fun suing the next brand that starts selling the same machine in different plastic

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#653

Post by IgorPartola »

gostsamo wrote: post #121
IgorPartola wrote: post #16

I had a Roomba about 10 years ago. It was OK but required a lot of “handholding” to not run over cords, kids toys, etc. It just was not really worth it to use it in an environment where you can’t keep everything nailed down and off the floor at all times. Relocated it to a basement level where we had much more empty but sill finished space. The cat angrily pooped just outside her litter box and the Roomba ran right o…

given your requirements, I'd advice marriage.

I think anyone getting married with the intent of treating their spouse like a maid is in for a bad time with that whole "70% of marriages end in divorce" statistic.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#654

Post by mattmaroon »

osiris970 wrote: post #637
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that an option I’m not aware of? Do chinese police even carry firearms? edit: most don’t ( https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries... ) So, given that, I would choose 100/100 times to deal with Chinese police over the US ICE/police murder squads if I had an option

In the U.S. you have free trials, in china you don't. What are you even talking about.

Hard to tell if someone is ignorant, not bright, or a CCP propaganda bot these days, but anyone who thinks the Chinese government is preferable to Amazon is one (at least) of those 3.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#655

Post by AndrewKemendo »

osiris970 wrote: post #637
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that an option I’m not aware of? Do chinese police even carry firearms? edit: most don’t ( https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries... ) So, given that, I would choose 100/100 times to deal with Chinese police over the US ICE/police murder squads if I had an option

In the U.S. you have free trials, in china you don't. What are you even talking about.

I’ve been in court multiple times in my life including last month. I assure you there’s nothing free about them.

The US has the largest prison population.

China has plenty of problems but no country matches the depravity of the US “justice” system.

Oh and that’s just the “formal” system, go to the south and you’ll see what it is.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#656

Post by acedTrex »

hylaride wrote: post #301
aurareturn wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is complacency or is China just accelerating? It's not surprising that China wins in these things. Just go to Shenzhen. Hardware designers, parts, machines that make the parts, factories, etc. are all within driving distance. You can't compete unless you also have offices there, hire Chinese workers, compete in China. American companies need to start designing in China, not just made in China. Ford themselves said…

IMO, the US business industry has become over-financialised to the point of self-sabotage. R&D and capital expenditure are seen as "bad" things to have on accounting statements. Combine this with Jack Welsh type CEOs who do everything they can to cut out "costs" on financial statements and you get organizations like GE turned into (badly run) banks. Cisco is now essentially a publicly traded PE firm that buys up othe…

yep bingo

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#657

Post by AndrewKemendo »

ryandrake wrote: post #545
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You already know this Ryan https://blog.avast.com/what-do-security-cameras-know-about-y... Data brokers love this data, dont play with me I know you better than that https://www.cloaked.com/post/the-data-broker-economy-will-hi...

I don't like this kind of surveillance any more than anyone else on HN, but we get this here all the time. People make these posts that X leads to Y and jump way over the details. Sometimes X does lead to Y. Other times, it's the Underpants Gnomes: There's a big "???" step between X and Y that people don't like to take the time to articulate. This is how conspiracy theories take hold--you ignore the ??? and just assu…

Yeah well the data to money pipeline is well understood and the basis for the entire surveillance market.

The book Surveillance Capitalism wrote about this a decade ago: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=56791

If people are still skeptical then they are ignoring reality.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#658

Post by osiris970 »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #655
osiris970 wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S. you have free trials, in china you don't. What are you even talking about.

I’ve been in court multiple times in my life including last month. I assure you there’s nothing free about them. The US has the largest prison population. China has plenty of problems but no country matches the depravity of the US “justice” system. Oh and that’s just the “formal” system, go to the south and you’ll see what it is.

No county matches the depravity of the U.S justice system? Other countries (china for example) have reeducation and labor camps. The us has its problems, and we should make things better! But it's incomparable, china actively imprisons political enemies, puts Muslims in "reeducation" camps, and has an iron fist on free expression.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#659

Post by fffernan »

sivanmz wrote: post #624
delichon wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E.g. Tesla: * built a lithium refinery * produces its own battery cells * makes its own motors and drivetrains * makes its own car seats * owns and operates a fast-charging network * sells direct, bypassing dealerships * offers insurance integrated with vehicle data * develops its own autopilot AI

Also relied on government subsidies until recently.

Seems like a pretty good investment. Leading EV company and 1tn +. Lots of white collar jobs.

Re: Roomba maker goes bankrupt, Chinese owner emerges

#660

Post by palmotea »

SoftTalker wrote: post #578
anymouse123456 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! I was a very early customer of Roomba and loved them when they came out. I had pets at the time, and the machine would consistently fail in about 14 months. I finally figured out that I needed to buy them from Costco, so that I could get them replaced. Rather than taking their lead and improving the product, they just sat there with the exact same product for like 10+ years. It was outrageous. I guess Rodney Br…

They could improve the design and get people to replace their machines with the improved ones, repeat and repeat. Or they could sell the broken design and people would just buy more as they broke. They don't care if Costco was eating the cost with their in-house warranty. The fundamental problem though is the same with all "household gadget" products. They look cool, and appear to solve a problem, but that is actuall…

> They could improve the design and get people to replace their machines with the improved ones, repeat and repeat.

> Or they could sell the broken design and people would just buy more as they broke. They don't care if Costco was eating the cost with their in-house warranty.

This strategy has limits, and I think iRobot hit those, and they didn't didn't lower themselves to switch to the second strategy of selling cheap unreliable garbage (at least not before 2019, which was the last time I bought a Roomba).

> The fundamental problem though is the same with all "household gadget" products. They look cool, and appear to solve a problem, but that is actually all a perception based on novelty. They actually don't work very well, they are not built very well, and they don't last very long. There's no point in improving them because the concept is fundamentally something people don't need in the first place.

I'd dispute this in this case: Roombas may not have solved the vacuuming problem for everyone, but they solved it for me (at least), and they were built pretty well (reliable, modular & reparable design, etc.).

> Just buy a good canister vacuum and you're set for a decade or more. It will cost more than the latest gadget from Shark or Dyson or iRobot but it won't frustrate you and it will just reliably do what it is supposed to do without uploading anything to an IP address.

1. I've got both, and the Roomba works a lot better than not vacuuming with the canister vacuum at all. It doesn't frustrate me, and it took far less time to Roomba-proof my home than vacuuming it every week for a year.

2. I agree with the IP address thing, but I think at only got added when they attempted to "get people to replace their machines with the improved ones." I have a couple of the older models that have no network connection (and had no plans to buy more due to the unnecessary network requirement).

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