Dyson this morning launched its new Airblade range in New York City. While not a totally new product category for the venerable English brand, the inclusion of a combination tap/dryer model does mean Dyson is venturing into wet products for the first time publicly since its prototype washing machine project stalled in the mid 2000s.
Sir James Dyson personally, and his engineering team generally, are fanatical about creating new products. So what can we expect out of Malmsbury in the next few years? Here’s what we’d like to see:
Dyson Coffee Machine
One of the interesting tidbits from the preview to the launch of the new Airblade range was the pressure description: “sixteen bars of pressure”. That’s one more bar than most coffee machines on the market. If Dyson can transfer its air pressure movement to water pressure, using a reliable and energy efficient Digital Motor, it could create a very desirable coffee machine.
Dyson Air Conditioner
Dyson’s forte is taking air from one place and moving it to another: to cool us, pick up dust along the way or to clean our hands. Having placed Dyson Air Multipliers in homes throughout the world over the past two years, the next logical step is to create a climate control style product that can be used year-round. Quiet operation and energy efficiency are hallmarks of Dyson appliances and there is certainly a market for these qualities in air conditioning.
UPDATE: There is a disagreement among readers about how quiet Dyson appliances are compared to others on the market.
Dyson Carpet/Floor Cleaner
Market leaders Bissell carved out a market in floor cleaning for themselves by highlighting that cleaning and sucking required two separate floorcare appliances. Dyson already has huge mindshare in vacuuming so it would have no trouble finding willing consumers should it release a dedicated carpet and/or hardwood cleaner, perhaps one that utilises some of the wet learnings from its washing machine and Tap projects. Imagine seeing the water’s cyclonic swirl inside a transparent Dyson cleaner? The product would sell itself.
Dyson Refrigerator
No company is better at circulating air than Dyson, so why not chill it down to single digits and then use it to keep our lettuce crisp? A Dyson Refrigerator would be an intriguing application for its Digital Motor, which would need to be considerably more robust to withstand 24-hour operation. Much like seasonal appliances, however, refrigeration is stuck in a painfully slow replacement cycle so the market could do with such an entry.
Dyson Washing Machine and Dryer
Okay, so Dyson tried this and it was too expensive, according to Sir James. But that was 10 years ago — surely efficiencies have improved enough for the Contrarotator, as it was known, to be back on the agenda. With Dyson’s new ability to move water mixed with its expertise in air movement and the use of heating elements, a Dyson combination washer/dryer could be a gamechanger in terms of energy efficiency, performance and longterm savings to users. It would definitely need a new name.