iRobot’s Terra is Dead on Arrival

Why China is winning the consumer automation race

Two years ago I made the decision to uproot my life and make a permanent move to China.

I looked around my new apartment on the first day and surmised that a big ticket item was needed to affirm my commitment to staying, so I decided to realise a dream I’d had for years and buy a Roomba.

I jumped online and looked for Roomba options and quickly found a couple awesome models – for between $800 and $900.

I almost dropped my laptop seeing prices that high. I wondered if there was another option so I looked up

“robot vacuum comparison”

video’s on YouTube.

One brand that kept showing up was a Chinese brand I recognised, Xiaomi.

I knew Xiaomi as the Chinese company that had once produced iPhones in their factories for Apple. That relationship soured and seconds later Xiaomi released their own, eerily similar phones at far lower prices.

Since then Xiaomi has innovated hundreds of consumer technology products, including a robot…