Dyson is to stop developing traditional corded vacuum cleaners, opting to concentrate on cordless machines in the future, company head James Dyson said.
The company will continue to make traditional cleaners for now – but it will no longer invest in developing the devices any further.
The British firm made the announcement as it unveiled the latest version of its digital motor for use in its cordless machines, saying the technology was powerful enough to rival full-size vacuums.
The V10 motor is smaller and lighter than its predecessors, but is 20 per cent more powerful and is faster than any digital motor the company previously produced. The first product to contain the new motor is the Cyclone V10, which Dyson revealed at an event in New York.
“We’ve gone smaller, faster, lighter and ever more powerful,” Mr Dyson said about the new motor, describing the Cyclone V10 as a vacuum cleaner of a new genre. “You can finally throw away the big old corded vacuum cleaner.”
Dyson re-engineered the digital motor, adding pressure sensors that the company says can distinguish whether you are upstairs or downstairs, using the device on a table or a floor, based on pressure sensors. It can also sense barometric pressure and temperature, and uses this information to make adjustment to deliver constant performance at different air pressures.
“We could tell you what the weather is, if we had a screen, but we haven’t got quite that far yet,” he said.
The new Cyclone V10 machine has rotated the cyclones and bin assembly by 90 degrees, which improves airflow and also allows for a “point and shoot” bin-emptying mechanism. The company also offers a choice of up to 40 per cent bigger bin capacity, so it needs emptying less regularly, and has created a lighter but more energy-dense battery pack that will last up to 60 minutes.
The decision to stop developing full-size vacuum cleaners is a major departure for the firm, which introduced its first cordless vacuum cleaner in 2006. Dyson produced the first vacuum cleaner manufactured under the brand name in 1993, and has since then developed a line of cylinder and upright vacuum cleaners. It introduced the digital motor v2 in 2009, and developed it further with the V6 and V8 motors in the following years .
The new Cyclone V10 costs from €449.99.
Purifying fans
Dyson also unveiled at the New York event new purifying fans that will tell users in real time how polluted their rooms are and then clean the entire room. The new Dyson Pure Cool devices will filter gases and 99.95 per cent of microscopic particles from the air, removing pollutants from pets, candles and general human activity.
"At Dyson, we develop machines for real people and real homes, creating technology that works well in the test lab but, more importantly, doing what they're expected to do in a real-world setting," said Paul Dawson, vice-president for Dyson health and beauty. "To clean the air at home, a purifier needs more than a filter. It needs to automatically sense pollution, capture gases and ultrafine particles, and project clean air to every corner of the room."
The air purifiers have a new LCD display that shows what particles and gases it is picking up and and displays air quality ratings based on input from three sensors, including lasers to detect ultrafine particles, a sensor for volatile organic compounds that can be emitted by paint, scented candles or materials in furniture, and a third sensor measures for relative humidity and temperature. These particles are captured by an improved filter, which includes activated carbon to absorb odours and gases.
It also links up with Dyson’s app to keep track of indoor air quality and the filter life.
The new fans will be available from March 26th and will cost from €449.99
