this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Haha. Ofc with these prices and features compared to some other good Chinese and other brands roomba is doomed. Like check vacuum wars on YT. Middle model roombas are on par with your typical Chinese brand robots but price is double. Basically, you pay for a brand ๐คท.
Why are the Chinese companies not collapsing too? What's different about irobot that they can't compete?
Is that a serious question? If it was, then Labor costs is the short answer. The longer answer would also include unmatched economies of scale at every step in the supply chain leading up to the final manufactured product as well. So their cheap labor also gets them cheap components.
I will check them out later! I've been wanting a robot vacuum for a while now but I also am wary of Chinese bullshit.
I want a really good one that doesn't connect to the internet in any way. ๐๐ป Even if that kills some of its smart features.
Chinese stuff has largely reached the same tipping point Japanese/Korean stuff reached in the 80s, where the previous couple decades it was cheap crap and "all of a sudden" it's on par or better than domestic consumer tech.
The cheap junk is still cheap junk of course but if you look at the middle tier or better they can be very good. DJI is a prime example, there aren't a lot of alternative drones if you want it to 'just work' and work well with decent support. You can also get a drone on Ali-express/TEMU for $20 but it's going to be cheap crap, but DJI drones you can buy in BestBuy and the bigger/more professional ones get used on movie sets.