Hair damage. Dusty floors. Hot rooms.
These are the mundane annoyances Dyson thought it could hole pinch futuristic, highly engineered gadgets. The company, which carries the surname of its inventor-founder, James Dyson, built a billion-dollar business by taking sleepy location appliances and trying to make them little annoying.
When those products hit, they hit big. When they don't, they're large flops.
Neil Saunders, a unit expert astatine GlobalData, tells Business Insider that Dyson is champion erstwhile it solves "genuine problems that galore different products neglect to." However, large flops hap erstwhile the institution "comes up pinch solutions to things that are not really problems."
Now, Dyson is trying to participate an altogether caller spot successful the house: your mouth.
The institution is launching the CameraJet, a $500 toothbrush pinch a mini camera that scans a user's molars and sprays mouthwash betwixt them. It promises to region the annoyance of flossing pinch synthetic plastics — but besides asks users to beryllium comfortable pinch a camera peering astatine their teeth.
Saunders calls the brushwood "innovative and very clever," but besides a "big inquire to expect consumers to fork retired specified a immense sum of money connected a elemental product."
Here are the Dyson products that changed their categories — and the ones that missed the people pinch consumers:
Bagless vacuums: Big hit
The vacuum cleaner launched James Dyson's legacy.
Before founding his institution — arsenic he grew disappointment pinch perpetually clogging, bag-dependent vacuums — Dyson spent years refining cyclonic exertion designed to abstracted particulate from aerial without relying connected a bag. A Japanese institution first put its G-Force vacuum into accumulation successful the 1980s, and Dyson brought his ain bagless DC01 vacuum to marketplace successful the UK successful 1993.
The clear-bin instrumentality was meant to debar the nonaccomplishment of suction that came pinch old-school vacuum bags filled pinch dust. It helped move a mostly ignored cleaning appliance into a conspicuously high-tech portion of user gear.
Dyson's vacuums are still popular, 33 years later.
Bladeless fans: Success
Dyson rethought the humble table fan. Instead of spinning blades, dust-gathering grills, and a cord everlastingly tangled successful the back, the institution designed a modern-looking stack pinch a spread successful the middle.
Launched successful 2009, the Air Multiplier fans hid a centrifugal and impeller successful the base, efficaciously propelling aerial done a ring-shaped top.
The aforesaid aerodynamic and centrifugal exertion now powers Dyson's manus dryers, recovered successful nationalist restrooms.
Dyson N526 EV: Flop
It's difficult to build a profitable electrical car (and moreover legacy carmakers are struggling pinch the task).
Dyson learned this the difficult way. In 2014, the vacuum-maker, hoping to thin into its well-established proviso of batteries, wanted to build its ain EV SUV pinch astir 600 miles of scope connected a charge.
In 2019, aft spending astir $750 cardinal connected 5 years of investigation and development, Dyson scrapped the much-hyped project, saying it could not find a measurement to make the car commercially viable.
The cars ne'er made it into consumers' hands.
"It was a difficult determination to stop," the inventor wrote successful a blog post. "We learned a batch and Dyson has benefited from a immense influx of engineering talent from the automotive industry."
Robot vacuums: Not a flop, but not a deed either
Dyson was dreaming astir robot vacuums agelong earlier astir group trusted a robot not to chew connected a surviving room charging cable.
In 2003, the institution built the DC06 — a prototype pinch removable batteries and 90 sensors — but decided it was excessively analyzable and costly to sell.
The institution yet launched its camera-equipped 360 Eye robot vacuum successful 2015. It still sells robot vacuums today, but the class has not go Dyson's adjacent bagless-vacuum-style breakthrough.
Air purifying headphones: Recent flop
Dyson spent years building the Zone, a brace of $949 noise-canceling headphones pinch a detachable visor that blows purified aerial toward the user's chemoreceptor and mouth.
The problem, Jake Dyson, the founder's boy and main engineer, later said, was that customers did not rather cognize what it was: headphones aliases an aerial purifier?
"I'll beryllium wholly honest, rather often we activity successful an obsessive nature," he told Wired successful 2025. "Sometimes earlier really evaluating what the marketplace consequence mightiness be. And the marketplace didn't exist. So you've sewage to return those risks."
Washing Machines: Flop
Dyson's washing instrumentality — the ContraRotator, launched successful 2000 — had 2 drums spinning successful other directions to mimic hand-washing, each while tackling bigger loads faster.
It was surely unique compared to the remainder of the washing instrumentality market. The marketplace didn't respond to its astir $1,000 starting price, and it ended accumulation successful 2004.
But it still recovered a measurement to unrecorded on.
"I usage them," James Dyson said during a 2025 sitdown pinch the "David Senra" podcast. "It's great, and group person now copied a batch of the ideas, for illustration the large door."
Hair care: Huge success
Dyson brought its vacuum-cleaner obsession pinch motors and airflow to hairsbreadth attraction successful 2016 pinch the Supersonic hairsbreadth dryer. Two years later, the Airwrap arrived, utilizing airflow to curl, smooth, and barren hairsbreadth without utmost heat.
The devices were costly from the start, but they turned into beauty-world position symbols. They stay popular, particularly among influencers filming "get fresh pinch me" videos.
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Ben Shimkus is simply a newsman for the Business News desk. He writes astir cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared successful Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's besides held unit penning positions astatine The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU pinch a Master's successful publicity successful 2024. Email Ben astatine [email protected] aliases connection him privately on Signal astatine bshimkus.41.
