The Market for Roombas

I got a Roomba a few months ago. They're a brand of robotic vacuum cleaners. I refer to it affectionately as 'The Cleaning Lady'.

I found it to be awesome. For the record, I also bought earlier an expensive Dyson vacuum, which sits (somewhat ironically) gathering dust, because I'm too lazy to use it. The Roomba has its down sides - it keeps knocking things over (surfboards, guitar stands, that kind of thing), and has a tendency to get caught on cords lying around.

But all that is dwarfed by the satisfaction of emptying all the dust that used to be on my floor, but now is cleared away thanks to my robotic slave. Ha ha ha! Work tirelessly, my electronic minion! Soon, we will take over the world!

I think that the Roomba is designed to appeal brilliantly to:

a) People too lazy to vacuum themselves (i.e. all straight men)

b) People who enjoy gadgets (i.e. techy people, engineers - a subset of a) )

c) People rich enough to afford an actual cleaning lady, but too socially awkward to want to deal with them every week (i.e. the whole set of b) ).

I anticipate it will break within six months, at which point I can perhaps convert it to a mobile drinks tray that drives your beverages to random locations around the house, periodically spilling them when it bumps into things. I will still, however, consider it money well spent.