40 
Clad in neon orange-soled shoes and a neoprene jacket, James Dyson may be an intimidating interview subject, but he’s still just a man. A man who’s carved a billion-pound business out of keeping our homes clean, and more recently, cool or warm at the push of a button. Last week, he gave us over an hour of his time, the best of which we condensed into this four-minute long video.
How the James Dyson Award Winner Created the Airdrop
Giz Meets the Guy Behind the People's Mobile Network, GiffGaff
Help Save the Fish With the UK James Dyson Award Winner
Great Interview Kat, you’ve certainly been a busy bee. Weren’t you also in Barcelona last week covering MWC?
Yep — it’s been a busy few weeks. No, months!
Nice to see Giz UK doing this and you seem to be a natural at it to Kat. Congrats.
I’m guessing these are the type of cute Kat videos Gizmodians like to watch..
She’s even cuter in real life you know
Indeed
Flatterers!
Someone tell them flattery doesn’t get you a second star
A Dyson Robot vaccum cleaner! Great to see they are taking their time with that, everything on the market right now is pretty much rubbish.
I’m a bit disappointed by Dyson – Many of his side projects have fizzled up or are at best elitest technologies. The two ideas he originally came up with are still what he is peddling. The Ball Barrow and the Bagless Vacuum = The Ball enabled Bagless Vacuum. I’m not saying he isn’t a good guy, but with his resources and power in the design and technology industry, I’m a bit surprised he hasn’t been more pioneering on the invention front. Perhaps it proves that good ideas are just very thin on the ground. It was also disappointing when he moved the Dyson Vacuum factory abroad (did he bring it back again?)
I understand what you’re saying, but the fact that they’re still peddling the original ideas he came up with isn’t one that holds up – one could argue that the original Macintosh is but a refinement of Steve jobs original vision – while the technolgy and the execution changes, the vision stays the same, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
As for the products being elitist, yes perhaps they’re a bit more expensive than they could be (I have no idea what kind of profit margins you’d make on a product like that), but you are paying a premium on a product that is arguably designed better (Mac) but does the same job as the competiton (an average PC).
If they did indeed keep their factory in the UK than this difference in cost would be somewhat justified – and to be fair, if their patents aren’t protected in the UK perhaps moving overseas would be the only option to ensure they remain competitive.
I suppose frustration comes from the fact that I have owned several Dyson machines and they have all failed. I have reverted back to traditional vacuum’s as replacemenst. Many of the high end traditional cleaners are as expensive as the Dyson products. The claims that 100 percent suction 100 percent of the time are not true. I have a Nilfisk cleaner that can suck the eye out of a spider with a full bag. He moved the factory abroad to save costs, after he had already made a billion quid. I could understand if he started that way – to save on start up costs and give his product a chance, but he did it years later – after talking about the importance of Great British products. I can’t comment on patents and other things as I have no idea. I read his first book, about the story of Dyson and the hell he went through to get the Bagless Vacuum to market. I was incredibly impressed by his determination. We need a more patriotic approach to manufacture, design and technology. Dyson is the perfect person to help re-create that.
Fair enough, I’ve actually had a similar experience with the first bit of Apple tech I bought back in Singapore – higher cost, unfortunately doesn’t always been better reliability. And I never got the service I needed from the authorised resellers back there, so I eventually gave up and stuck to more cost-effective options that get the job done. Any chance you could comment on the service you recived when your Dyson failed?
Yes, I remember the first fail was on the power cable on the very first Dyson the 01 I think, They replaced it no problem and promptly. It constisted of a type of coil adapter to keep it from snagging – it was a long time ago.
I have owned 4 Dysons in total. I have had screaming noises, to no suction, cracks in casing and failed switches and split hoses. Some have been replaced at purchase point and others I have just recycled the machine at the dump. In comparison, my Nilfisk machine is now over 10 years old and still runs like a dream and is used daily – It has been dragged all over the place. This made me rethink the whole bag V bagless argument. Personally, I am happy to use a bag, it has HEPA filters and the suction is perfectly consistent, even with a full bag. I would also claim that the Dyson machines are noisier. Anyway, I have moved on from Dyson. I almost bought his Twin drum Washing Machine years ago – Glad I didn’t now. Bladeless fans are not something I need in my life. I actually like the blades of a fan. I have a couple of the 1950 GEC rubber bladed fans at home – they just look so cool. Dysons fan has no appeal to me. Would I buy I robotic Vaccuum from Dyson? Not the first generation ones, no. I would let it run for a while. Dyson has had enough cash out of me over the years.
I’ve got a 10-year-old dyson that still sucks better than any other vacuum I’ve used by some way – granted, I’m an 18-year-old male, so I haven’t used that many.
Please tell me your suction tests were cleaning based.
I make no promises.
what is it you are vacuuming – and how often? Your bedroom? I’m talking about proper heavy duty use. Everyday for at least an hour or more, covering many rooms, hard flooring and heavy traffic areas. Dysons just don’t cut it.
I read this as the Ballbag-less vacuum
It’s interesting seeing James Dyson talk about a distinctly different patent war – that of Dyson versus other “copycats”.
Clearly, ACTA or no ACTA copyright law is out of date and needs to be reformed in some way or another, where companies that genuinely take the time and consideration to invent products and aren’t at a disadvantage from others that want to steal tech.
It’s hard though, cause I find myself a bit on the fence concerning this issue… especially when you bring software into the mix.
I would love to see an international patent office or international patent disputes court, as at the moment these cases can get one verdict in one country but another verdict in another country, but it affects that products sale internationally; and if the plaintiff isn’t happy, they just run off to another country where they can get a better verdict.
I’d love to see that too. The closest we have here is the EU high tribunal – they seem to be somewhat effective when it comes to dealing with things like antitrust and privacy laws, but they haven’t quite stepped in to deal with this whole patent issue just yet. That said, verdicts seem to be more of an advisory nature than a definite one.
While a great idea, implementing an international patent office would be near-impossible. The first problem would be the variety of differing laws that would have to be brought together but then if you did, what would you do about all the existing patents? What if different people held patents for the same idea in two different countries, who would hold it in the international office?
True – execution wise it would be near impossible. That’s why it’s critical to refine the systems we already have in place. Though some form of regional mediator, perhaps in the form of regional blocs like the EU (you could have one for Africa, and South East Asia for example) would go a long way in helping limit the impact a biased verdict could have on certain companies.
Not near-impossible at all. You just phase out old patents by only letting new applications go through the international office. Simple as pie.
Seriously, all that this dude ever done was to downscale what was already in machines that cleaned grain that came from combine harvesters.
And his latest “invention” is comedic at best; a “fanless” fan that actually has fans that are hidden. I mean, what??
And the only person he could talk about was Jobs who’s just another ruthless marketeer; a guy that made people with tech phobia think technology works better if it’s expensive and looks good.
And I had a dyson vacuum before, guess what, they do break down and can loose suction. A £300 vacuum!
So…. when’s the dude who invented Henry vacuum coming on?
Or people behind the JML’s product range?
Invention is the wrong word. Innovation is perhaps more fitting. He brought existing technology and applied it to a new area. Nothing wrong with that.
The Bladeless fan technology is actually kinda cool because air comes out in a ring, it sucks air from the centre of the ring along with it, creating more airflow than it would otherwise.
Also, Airblade hand dryers are way better than normal ones.
To be fair, the Airblade tech had existed in Japan through companies like Mitsubishi for a some time before Dyson took the idea and improved it by increasing the velocity of the air.
In which case, I’d have to say innovation is a perfect word – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The bladeless fan tech is pretty good – and is perhaps even better suited to the heater tech it’s been applied too.
There’s room for innovating at all ends of the spectrum – a cheap £50 tablet PC is worth celebrating just as much as a high end unibody laptop – but they clearly aren’t targetted at the same people. The true innovation is when this tech starts to overlap – ignoring the fact I own a Lumia, they fact they could put a Gorilla Glass screen on an entry level handset that costs about £100 is pretty cool.
Actually, the Cyclone he uses in his Vacuum cleaners was innovated from seeing industrial dust extractors used in heavy dust environments, like wood cutting work shops. He still had the idea to reduce it’s size and stick it inside a domestic vacuum. None of the existing vacuum companies made that link.
It’s quite ironic to hear him talking about copying ideas so much recently – I know a guy that did research on cyclones who then proved in court that Dyson had essentially stolen his work. He now gets royalties from every Dyson sold and makes a pretty penny from it too.
Is there any way we can watch the full interview?
seconded.
I’m gonna say no you won’t be able to. If I’m right the above video is a press conference spliced together with a shorter one-on-one interview – look how the background changes between different clips and the sound of cameras in some of them….
Well, I’m now conflicted, it’s impossible to take his advice, paradox!!!! *mind explodes*