Get a glimpse of what's on the tech horizon with Foolish reports from the field at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show. Companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 launch and showcase thousands of products at the event, which attracts visitors from around the world.
With so much connected tech these days, it seems like all our devices are online or talking to each other. CEO Colin Angle has spoken of how iRobot (IRBT 4.90%) may play a role in this "Internet of things."
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A full transcript follows the video.
Austin Smith: Probably one of the most commonly used words here at CES is "connectivity," right? All these devices speaking to each other -- this idea of the Internet of things.
As you guys expand out and you have different robots in different cleaning categories, from gutters to hardwood floors to mopping, do you think that robotic connectivity of all these devices is a big part of iRobot's future or is it not something that you think is a part of these future robots and designs and features that you guys are going to have?
iRobot: Right, that's a really hot topic. Even Colin Angle, our CEO, has gone on record talking about that and how iRobot might play a role. It's on everybody's mind; you can see the industry going that way. Everything is connected in some way, and we're no exception.
Colin has talked about this notion of the autonomous home and what kind of role we could play in that. When you look around at the types of products we have, it's not a stretch to see how these things could play a role in helping your home take care of itself.
That's certainly something that we pay close attention to, that our leaders are looking very closely at. We like even being here and being able to see what other people are doing too. It's certainly a topic that's on the top of our mind as well.
Smith: Great. Last question; it seems like you've got a lot of children here -- it's hard to pick your favorite! Which iRobot product or category do you think is most exciting today, that's most interesting to you, that you think people should really be checking out?
iRobot: Oh, how do you choose? I think it's always the thing that is newest that's most exciting. We just launched the Scooba 450, which is really exciting for us.
As I mentioned, we've been making robots for a while. We've learned a lot about how to make robots, and this one has a lot of the latest knowledge on how to put things together, how to manufacture it, how to make a great product -- that is very complicated -- really simple to use and do a job that people don't like, which is cleaning up after maybe your kids or cleaning up after a messy kitchen.
This is really cool. It's brand-new. We're excited, just because of that alone.
Smith: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate the answers.
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