Colin Angle, the CEO and founder of iRobot, believes that tech giants have botched the smart home.
Systems like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings all boast thousands of device integrations, but getting those disparate parts to work well in concert can be a tremendous pain. Instead of trying to connect with everything, Angle believes the way forward is to start over and think smaller.
“Unlike the Googles, Amazons, and SmartThings of the world, I believe in a walled garden,” Angle says. “I believe the experience trumps universality.”
iRobot, best known for its Roomba robot vacuums, is now in the middle of trying to fulfill that vision. The company’s iRobot Genius software has just added a bunch of new features to help its vacuums better understand what’s happening in the home, and it’s releasing a new high-end Roomba that can steer around power cords and pet waste.
“I think we need to have closer partnerships, tighter integrations, and more automation in how your home is managed, configured, and maintained to create an overall experience that the average user can take full advantage of,” he says.
Smarter vacuums first
iRobot’s bigger smart home plans started taking shape about a year ago, when it released the first version of its Genius software as a free upgrade for its existing iRobot app. That update allowed Roombas to identify areas that need more frequent cleaning, recommend cleaning schedules based on user behavior, and flag obstacles that users might want to permanently avoid in the future.
