thornstevens

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I see home robotics as the natural progression of computing into the home. A world where your iPad, your phone, your computer, your TV and your home robots are all connected. It's very limiting to think of home robots as just a vacuum cleaner. The vision is for a family of robots taking care of you and your home — doing chores, providing entertainment, doubling as a security guard, keeping an eye on grandma and making sure she's taking her pills. The iPad makes all this so much easier than pre-iPad, because it can be the face and brains of the robot, and you just need a chassis to attach it to. There's so much potential just waiting for somebody with deep pockets and vision to get it done.

If you read the post, the point is made that a defense contractor is a more likely takeover candidate in the near-term. But five years from now, why wouldn't a forward looking guy like Steve Jobs, or even Bill Gates, turn their attention to home robotics?

Who has the most robots in our soldiers' hands in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who else has developed a robotic vacuum that sells in the millions, or a robotic mop that sells in the hundreds of thousands, or, frankly, any home robot that is not a toy and has sold more than 1 million copies? All of that takes serious engineering talent.

Robotics certainly needs somebody to kickstart it. It's hard to do when the biggest consumer robotics company is worth about $500 million. You need real scale. The kind of scale that Apple could instantly provide.

It's about 50-50, with slightly more revenue ($200 million plus this year alone) from home robots.

Why not a talent acquisition? iRobot has the best roboticists MIT has to offer, and a growing trove of patents.

Apple isn't in the cleaning business now. But they weren't in the music business 10 years ago.

Lawn moving robots are already around but pricey ($1K+). This blog, Robot Stock News, has a report on iRobot's patents for a robotic lawnmower, Roomba upgrades and more. iRobot also has promised new home robots soon, so we will have to see...