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Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#41

Post by nostromo »

7thaccount wrote: post #34
paxys wrote: post #21

I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…

I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over. Can anyone think of anything? I would guess any new product would be more complex, less efficient, and a security risk. It'll be cool and trendy for a few months and then die off. Just like the Alexa and Google speakers that can tell you the weather or adjust your lights...is it REALLY that useful outside of entertaining your nieces and neph…

I'm shocked by your comment. Everyone that doesn't enjoy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash would LOVE a home robot that really works.

Of course, these are very hard problems to take on -- much harder than a "smart" light switch -- but the market is absolutely there.

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#42

Post by rrr_oh_man »

CPLX wrote: post #37
newhotelowner wrote: post #17

I want something that cleans my bathroom and toilet. I will buy it for my business and will pay 20-30k/year. Also, something to Clean my dishes (Load in the dishwasher, turn it on, and put it away). Doing my laundry - load, wash and fold. Mow the lawn.

I just want a machine that will produce a cup of something that is almost, but not completely, unlike tea.

Thank you for reminding me of this fabulous book.

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#43

Post by exe34 »

CPLX wrote: post #37
newhotelowner wrote: post #17

I want something that cleans my bathroom and toilet. I will buy it for my business and will pay 20-30k/year. Also, something to Clean my dishes (Load in the dishwasher, turn it on, and put it away). Doing my laundry - load, wash and fold. Mow the lawn.

I just want a machine that will produce a cup of something that is almost, but not completely, unlike tea.

You can get shitty vending machines for that!

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#44

Post by rrr_oh_man »

guhidalg wrote: post #28
newhotelowner wrote: post #17

I want something that cleans my bathroom and toilet. I will buy it for my business and will pay 20-30k/year. Also, something to Clean my dishes (Load in the dishwasher, turn it on, and put it away). Doing my laundry - load, wash and fold. Mow the lawn.

I would pay like $5000 for a laundry folding robot. I just want a big washing-machine sized box where I dump my laundry at the top and slowly everything gets folded. That's 1 hour / week freed up.

You could get yourself a drying cabinet (basically a closet with an A/C inside).

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#46

Post by burkaman »

7thaccount wrote: post #34
paxys wrote: post #21

I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…

I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over. Can anyone think of anything? I would guess any new product would be more complex, less efficient, and a security risk. It'll be cool and trendy for a few months and then die off. Just like the Alexa and Google speakers that can tell you the weather or adjust your lights...is it REALLY that useful outside of entertaining your nieces and neph…

I don't personally find them exciting but robotic vacuum cleaners are pretty popular, I guess they could make an expensive one of those and be successful.

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#47

Post by rrr_oh_man »

purpleblue wrote: post #16

They should just fix Siri and iTunes. Siri is shockingly useless. If Siri were even a little more useful I would get a Home Pod but it's utterly useless for most things except setting timers and turning on lights.

Whisper >>>> Siri

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#48

Post by npunt »

paxys wrote: post #21

I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…

One thing about Apple is things can make sense for them to explore that don't make sense for others to. They have a big enough ecosystem, enough cash to do R&D on an idea for decades, and a culture of killing things that aren't good enough that make them an ideal place to determine whether ideas are a conceptual dead end versus just haven't been executed well enough (or tied to the right ecosystem to make them work).

Foldables make sense for Apple to explore because even if it's ~5% likely to be able to be productized, the return is measured in the tens of billions.

Smart speakers were comparatively cheap and are probably profitable, so even if they're not a huge market they made sense.

AR/VR remains to be seen. Meta's still learning how to build hardware and operating systems and still learning how to sell actual products, so they're probably not the right ones to test concept risk when they already have so much execution risk. They also don't have the leverage or insertion point that Apple does if e.g. AR/VR turns into an alternative to computers & iPhones instead of an alternative to consoles. It may also be that Vision Pro is just a prelude to AR that ship in ~2035 but lays so much groundwork that nobody stands a chance at competing by the time the tech is ready, letting Apple secure the next trillion dollar product.

Cars were expensive and cancelled, that's the one that required Apple to stretch the most in terms of both brand and execution.

In your Google example, remember they invented transformers and yet did nothing with them. Any failure in Google's robotics efforts are likely due to Google having an absolutely horrible record of shipping and standing behind products. I wouldn't trust a Google robot because I wouldn't trust a Google product.

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#49

Post by judah »

7thaccount wrote: post #34
paxys wrote: post #21

I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…

I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over. Can anyone think of anything? I would guess any new product would be more complex, less efficient, and a security risk. It'll be cool and trendy for a few months and then die off. Just like the Alexa and Google speakers that can tell you the weather or adjust your lights...is it REALLY that useful outside of entertaining your nieces and neph…

The company that builds a robot that can do household chores will be very, very rich.

I want a bot that can do laundry (load washer, load dryer, fold, put away), do the dishes (rinse, put in dishwasher, put clean dishes away, wash pots & pans), vacuum floors, dust, clean up messes, empty garbage bins, take out the trash, mow my lawn, trim bushes, clean tables, mop floors, make meals, cleans toilets and sinks and bathrooms.

Currently myself and my wife split these duties, and kids help a bit. But it's still a ton of work for us. I would love to offload all that and more to a robot.

Re: Apple explores home robotics as potential 'next big thing'

#50

Post by Moto7451 »

7thaccount wrote: post #34
paxys wrote: post #21

I know being late to the game and doing the tech "right" in terms of design and usability is kinda Apple's thing, but lately it seems like they have been only picking areas that weren't successful for a reason, like insurmountable technical difficulties or lack of customer interest, and no amount of Apple's design or marketing magic can fix that. See – self driving, AR/VR, smart speakers, folding phones, now home rob…

I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over. Can anyone think of anything? I would guess any new product would be more complex, less efficient, and a security risk. It'll be cool and trendy for a few months and then die off. Just like the Alexa and Google speakers that can tell you the weather or adjust your lights...is it REALLY that useful outside of entertaining your nieces and neph…

Food prep.

There are already products for infants that will prep baby food. It’s harder to do something more complicated than that. Meal kit type meals that take grocery store ingredients as an input would likely do well with the well to do 30+ crowd that is in the middle of having kids and home remodels and is upset at how much delivery restaurant food they eat.

I’m definitely not projecting ;).

I think there’s likely a market for just the iBabyFood maker let along coming closer to an automated chef that’s “smarter” than buying a meal kit.

My experience with smart vacuums is that the more “AI” they add to them the worse they get. I’ve switched brands a few times and have always preferred the dumber models. I’m sure old iPhone tech and some computer vision know how would make a “Roomba killer” possible but I don’t know how many people are going to by the Beats by Dre Vacuum. Maybe a lot?

As things become more solarized a cross “platform” energy management system would be useful. Load controllers exist but often they’re tied to solar batteries or EVSEs. In my case I could avoid the cost of a panel update if there was a good system for load control that also wouldn’t upset my family. I.e. if they need to handle a transfer switch they will not be happy. More like, “if I’m running the jacuzzi and it’s winter, gate the AC but not the heat pump. If it’s summer gate the heat pump Aux heat but not the heat pump itself”

Most load controllers are focused on making a generator or battery run critical loads and don’t really work for larger more electrified homes on 200A panels.

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