Dyson unveils premium cleaners
By Yoon Sung-won
Dyson’s senior design engineer Matt Steel, left, demonstrates the company’s new premium cordless vacuum cleaners during a press conference at the Ara Art Center in Jongno, central Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Dyson
British electronics maker Dyson unveiled new premium home appliances designed to remove ultrafine particles in households, Tuesday.
The company launched its premium cordless vacuum cleaners with an upgraded motor and filter, as well as bladeless fans with an air purifying function into the Korean market. It maintained its high-price policy with the new products, hinting that it is not likely to turn its focus to budget models.
Both of the new devices have been priced at about 800,000 won in Korea.
“At Dyson, our goal is to provide products with the best performance possible,” Dyson’s senior design engineer Matt Steel said during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. “We invest more than one-third of our profits back into research and development, which is unprecedented in the industry, because we want to make new inventions which are the best in the world.”
Dyson Asia spokesman Tom Moody said, “The prices were set this way because our concentration is on developing and providing new technology. This has been our identity since James Dyson established the company in 1993. It is also why customers buy Dyson.”
Despite the increasing number of customers who buy electronics from foreign online shopping malls such as eBay and Amazon, Moody said the company does not plan to provide a global warranty.
Dyson is the world’s top premium vacuum cleaner vender with about 70 percent market share, followed by electronics makers such as Electrolux, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.
“We always consider Asia’s environment and market issues. Asian countries, Korea in particular, have been at the center of our 1.5 billion pound expansion plan because customers here are highly interested in the latest technology such as cordless devices,” the spokesman said.
The Dyson engineer said the research on Korea’s indoor air quality that it has jointly conducted with Seoul National University showed that one-third of Korean households have harmful mold in the air and this can cause a negative impact on humans.
Dyson’s new cordless vacuum cleaners have a newly-developed V6 motor, which is more compact that its predecessor V4.
Steel said the company has invested 250 million pounds to develop the upgraded motor. Adding to the new HEPA filter, the vacuum cleaners can absorb 0.3-micron ultrafine particles up to 99.99 percent, he said.
The company also introduced a new bladeless fan named Dyson Pure Cool with air purifying function for the first time. Steel said it can remove 99.95 percent of harmful ultrafine particles as small as 0.1 micron while circulating cool air indoors.