The Roomba, which can be had for as little as $150, scurries intelligently over most types of flat floors, sucking up debris along the way. This infomercial hit penetrated the shelves of top retailers like Target (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), and Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD), and made investing in household-appliance-makers cool again. You've come a long way, consumer robotics. iRobot's profitably pioneering ways also earned it a nod as an official Rule Breakers newsletter recommendation.
iRobot usually makes headlines with other products. Its Scooba floor scrubber has been a hit since its retail introduction earlier this year. In addition, its bomb-defusing PackBot military robots are aiding U.S. soldiers abroad and forging bonds with soldiers in wartime.
There's feel-good potential in all those things, but we can't dismiss the Roomba and its revolution in home maintenance. Not everyone is satisfied with their Roomba. Our Foolish discussion board about iRobot is full of both endearing testimonials and scorching rebukes. That's the rub with new technology -- it's hard to please everybody early on. That's what makes iRobot's sales milestone so remarkable. You don't reach roughly 2% of the homes in this country by accident.
There are still plenty of opportunities for more advanced consumer robotics -- like the Scooba, which vacuums, mops, scrubs, and dries in a single pass -- to find more places in our homes. We are a country built for leisure, and time that can be spared lugging around a dirty mop bucket, or yanking a power cord from outlet to outlet to vacuum a home, is time well-spared.
iRobot posted a huge 123% increase in revenue this past quarter. Unfortunately, the shares have performed poorly since its Rule Breakers nod, but that also makes this the ideal time to snap up a stake in the company at a relative bargain.
Don't assume that would make you a sucker. That's what the Roombas are for.
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of iRobot but he does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. Best Buy is aMotley Fool Stock Advisorpick. The Fool has adisclosure policy. Rick is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
