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