Is the solution to a small robot vacuum really to increase the power of the motor above the competition?
On hard wood flooring I've never found rotary brushes to be better than side sweeps (what most of the competition uses).
And on carpet where rotary brushes do perform better, I can't help but think that instead of upping the suction power you could approach the problem from a different perspective... such as using a low vibration to shake the dirt and dust free of the carpet so that it's easier to pick up the material with less suction power.
I really like Dyson products, but it very much feels like they have a hammer (high powered suction in lower watt motors) and so every problem looks like a nail.
Some of their innovations over the past 5 years haven't impressed me...
Their hand dryers do a worse job than the classic World Dryer and look uglier over time and seem to be less performant over time (smaller clogged filters perhaps!?).
Their "fanless" fan of course has a fan, and whilst it shifts a good chunk of air at first it also suffers from degrading performance as the hidden fan gets clogged with dust over a season. And yet, the classic desk fan performs consistently well all the time.
And the problem with releasing highly-hyped products that turn out to be only average, is that it's hard to believe the hype in future.
Whereas I used to look at a Dyson as being incredibly functional innovation, I now look upon them as gimmicky innovation using their single core-trick.
And of course, they will successfully market and patent all of this (of which even the linked article is a part of that puzzle), such that people start to believe this is the best solution (not proven at all), and that Dyson will claim that no-one else can provide the best because of the patents (partly true, but who said this was the best?).
Years of buying and using Dyson products has left me greatly cynical. Their upright hoovers are still the business though.