Before June 1993, the world was a quiet, traditional, and boring place. At least it was for vacuum cleaners. Dyson’s introduction caught other manufacturers by surprise and out of their complacency. The world of vacuum cleaners would never be the same again.

Dyson is now a legendary company. Almost everyone knows the product and agrees that Dyson makes a top-notch vacuum cleaner. It has become a design icon. It is considered a thing of beauty and owning one is considered ‘de rigueur’ in some circles. All this, for a vacuum cleaner? It’s not hard to understand when you take a look at how things used to be.

Almost everyone has a vacuum cleaner. Before Dyson, vacuuming was considered one of our least favorite chores. Most people didn’t even know what brand of vacuum they had. James Dyson, the founder of Dyson, was probably no exception. But he had the unique ability to ask if a product we took for granted and despised could work better. In 1978, while he was vacuuming his house, James Dyson noticed that his bagged vacuum cleaner was constantly losing suction power. He noticed how the dust quickly clogged the pores of the bag and blocked the airflow, so the suction dropped rapidly. He got to work, and five years later, the world’s first bagless cyclonic vacuum arrived. He had originally offered his revolutionary centrifugal force bagless vacuum patent to the world’s leading vacuum manufacturers: they all turned it down. Not to be defeated, he started manufacturing the Dyson vacuum cleaner in a factory near where he lived in England. In less than 2 years Dyson was the best selling vacuum cleaner in the UK.

Dyson’s success has been replicated around the world. This success took the larger and more established vacuum cleaner manufacturers by surprise. However, they have risen to the challenge. Most now offer their customers a bagless version of the vacuum cleaner. They also reanalyzed suction power and found other ways to improve the cleaning power of their vacuums. Hoover claims that its new WindTunnel vacuum picks up 56% more dirt from a carpet than Dyson. Elsewhere, Electrolux claims that its range of vacuums is as powerful as any Dyson vacuum but much quieter.

Dyson also claimed that the filter used in traditional vacuum cleaners became clogged, causing a lack of suction power. However, the introduction of the HEPA filter caused Dyson to reconsider his design and finally introduce a HEPA filter in his vacuum. Other manufacturers, of course, claimed that this would compromise the Dyson’s cleaning power.

But is the Dyson vacuum cleaner still an innovative product? Well, Dyson recently released an upright vacuum that incorporates a ball into the vacuum head. This makes it easier to move around the house. Other vacuum makers will follow suit, and in some ways make improvements that surpass Dyson’s.

So who is the winner? Dyson, Hoover, Electrolux or Miele? The answer is that the consumer is the winner. What was once the complacent world of vacuum cleaners has become a competitive market; competition driven by technical innovations rather than marketing strategies. Regardless of which brand of vacuum you buy, its cleaning power is due in part to the fact that Dyson came along and forced all vacuum manufacturers to remember that customers cannot be taken for granted.