Robot Lawnmowers - What Happens in the Market - Essay Example

Since these grasses only need a little edging, the market for robot lawnmowers is high which ceases opportunities for human intervention.

2.1.2. USA and Europe mower markets are promoting robot lawnmowers by selling, installing, and maintaining them for cool season turf trimming. The sellers make their customers buy them and thus ample time is saved for attracting new clientele and persuading them to buy robot lawnmowers. This not only saves time but also offers huge profits.

2.1.3. The best robot lawnmowers that are being sold in the market holding positive feedback from the elderly and disabled consumers include Robomower, Lawnbott, and Husqvarna Automower (Squidoo LLC, 2011). Robomower is being made by a company in Israel named Friendly Robotics and is being traded in the US by Systems Trading Corporation (STC). Lawnbott is being made by an Italian company named Zucchetti Centro Sistemi and is being imported by Kyodo America (KA). It is marketed by the name of Ambrogio in Europe. Automower is made by a Swedish company and is imported and marketed by official Husqvarna dealers.

2.2. Market Trend

2.2.1. Current Market Trend

2.2.1.1. Robot market is developing at a fast pace since robots are making lives easier by automating the systems and leaving enough time for leisure along with saving money (Fuller, 1991).  Since new technology is continuously replacing the old ones, the price of robot lawnmowers is dropping and is expected to further drop in the coming years with a simultaneous increase in their usage especially by consumers who are elderly or disabled.

2.2.1.2. The technology regarding the hardware, software, and design is being improved but the component prices are dropping since the demand is increasing. The robot market is seriously considering the needs of the elderly and disabled persons and the robot lawnmower market also considers them their biggest consumers.

2.2.2. Market Development

2.2.2.1. Consumer robot markets for lawn mowing “at $227 million in 2007 are expected to reach $1.7 billion by 2014”, according to Aarkstore Enterprise (2009).

2.2.3. Future Trend

2.2.3.1. The robotic mower market is expected to quadruple in the coming few years. However, at least a decade is needed for these lawnmowers to replace the contractors’ business so in the meanwhile the contractors can make use of these intelligent devices to make money in their businesses.

 2.3. Consumer Profile

Table: Elderly and Disabled population profile

Percentage of elderly people in the UK

16% of the total population

(Office for National Statistics, 2010)

Percentage of disabled people in the UK

11 million (approx. 7% of total population)

(Xinhua News Agency, 2009)

Annual income

Minimum £15,000 a year for each adult and £5,000 per child.

2.4. Analysis of Customer Reaction

2.4.1. Amongst the people who completed the survey, 50% were elderly people and 50% were disabled persons.

2.4.2. Our survey shows that 90% of the participants gave positive responses about the robot lawnmowers.

2.4.3. Those who gave negative responses were those who wanted to do things their way without letting a machine interfere, and some were those who had no interest in lawn-mowing.

2.4.4. One of the important analyses of the survey that increases our product selling point is all participants responded that no existing robot lawnmower worked well on large edging of lawns.

The need is to meet the standards that the three main companies- Robomower, Lawnbott, and Automower- are providing to the consumers.
2.6.2. In the intended location, many lawn-mower shops are providing mowing services including installation and maintenance but all of these services are intended for little edging of lawns. Our service is mainly for large edging.