Frustrated with how his existing machine worked, Mr. Dyson reused technology
that mirrored how a cyclone forcefully sucked wind from its surroundings, eventually spending 15 years — and building more than 5,000 prototypes — before releasing his first vacuum cleaner in 1993.
And when the company began selling $400 hair dryers last year, its mostly male engineering team not only learned to professionally blow-dry hair to understand how rival products worked,
but also again copied the battery, motor and fan technology from Dyson’s existing products.
The company said it would spend more than $2 billion on battery technology, machine learning
and other high-tech wizardry to create new products, many of which remain under wraps behind tight security at its headquarters.
“That’s what Apple and Dyson have done well — being best in breed for technology and industrial design.”
Dyson said its pretax profits rose 41 percent last year to 631 million pounds, or $785 million, while revenue
rose 45 percent to £2.5 billion, or $3.1 billion, partly because of the weakened British pound.
For Steve Courtney, head of Dyson’s new products unit,
that included moving into cordless vacuum cleaners in 2005, even though analysts said the machines would hurt sales of the company’s corded products.
“No one knows if their technology will work or not.”
Mark Taylor, Dyson’s research director, said the company was committed to making the battery technology work.
As smartphones became everyday tools, Dyson’s robotics team again had to rethink the vacuum cleaner, adding internet
connectivity so the machine could send notifications — with a heat map of where it had cleaned — to a mobile device.
