Why is there no real alternative to the Rotimatic roti maker robot (except cheap copies that make poor quality rotis)
Rotimatic vs other fully automatic roti maker
By Vibhuti Sharma and Vikashini Rao
Copycats around the world have been trying to reverse engineer the Rotimatic replica for as long as Rotimatic has existed.
There have been a few fully automatic roti makers that suspiciously look and work similar to the Rotimatic, but even after all these years, they’re still not able to beat or even come close to the popularity of the Rotimatic so they have never emerged as a true Rotimatic alternative.
A screenshot from the listing of a copycat roti maker on alibaba.com. Here is a link to the listing. The webpage is definitely worth a visit for cringe's sake 😀
A quick search for keywords like ‘automatic roti maker’, ‘robot roti maker’ etc. On alibaba.com throws up 823 results from Chinese companies that are more or less selling the same machine with different brand names. These so called Rotimatic alternatives are available wholesale for even as low as USD 65!
A screenshot of a search in alibaba.com for the keyword ‘robot roti maker’ reveals 823 similar machines sold by different companies. You can view this search result by clicking here.
Over the years many companies including an upstart that launched in India in 2022 have been selling these machines under their respective brand names all around the world, but let’s first talk briefly about the incredible creation story of the original Rotimatic, a story of the tenacity of Pranoti Nagarkar, the inventor of the Rotimatic.
You can either read the entire blog (trust us, you won't regret it), or if you're looking for something specific you can jump to the section using the index below.
Why Rotimatic is the original roti making robot and will always be?
A short history of Rotimatic copycats
Rotimatic vs copycat by a popular kitchen appliance brand in India
Rotimatic vs other imitations: A comparison
Rotimatic is the OP fully automatic robotic roti maker
The Rotimatic’s development journey is quite remarkable in itself. Roti making is a complex process and more than 3 billion rotis are made every day around the world and yet there was no solution to make the process any convenient until an Indian origin engineer Pranoti Nagarkar, CEO and CO-Founder of Zimplistic envisioned a dream to tackle this problem. Her dream was not to create a kitchen appliance but create a robot with intelligence who could mimic a human and make perfect rotis each time.
Rotimatic inventors Pranoti and Rishi working in the lab at our Singapore office. You can read more about the story of this invention in our about us page.
Development of the Rotimatic started in 2009. The challenge was huge and Pranoti embraced it with all courage and within 6 months of starting, she created her first prototype ITOR 1. The prototype worked like it was supposed to and that’s how the first Rotimatic roti was made.
One challenge was accomplished; she created a machine within a short span of time which could make a roti but that wasn’t it. It wasn’t fully automatic and not as complex as compared to what Rotimatic is today.
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A result of sweat and tears
“Invention is a process, and you don’t get there overnight”- Louis Foreman.
This is exactly what Pranoti experienced when she started her endeavor to create Rotimatic. After the 1st prototype in 2009, she came up with another the same year, ITOR 4, then ITOR 6 in 2010 and after 11 such protypes, 15 iterations and 37 patents under her name, in 2013, she finally introduced the world to its first fully automatic, IoT and WI-FI enabled Roti robot – Rotimatic.
This is the ‘wall of hope’ in our Singapore office. It shows the long journey of 8 years and the efforts put into creating the Rotimatic as it is today.
Maybe this is where the other falls apart. Right after Rotimatic was launched, suddenly a lot of other companies followed. The lack of originality wasn’t the issue. The issue was that these so called fully automatic Roti makers never put time and effort into research and development. They made a naïve attempt at replicating Rotimatic with the help of reverse engineering, blatantly copied Roti Matic’s hardware and yet they failed miserably.
Why? Because Rotimatic is more complex than that. The creators created the best hardware without any prior reference. They designed the machine, keeping humans as a reference and mimicking the same judgement and process by replacing it with motors and sensors
Where Rotimatic took 8 years in R&D to innovate and create the best Roti maker in the market, these other companies simply copied the hardware and launched their cheap Chinese manufactured machines into the market, killing the scope of originality and a startup’s dream to revolutionize kitchens with robotics and intelligence.
A short history of Rotimatic knockoffs
As soon as the Rotimatic made its first appearance the so called Rotimatic alternatives emerged.
Most of these devices are simply reverse engineered from the original. The manufacturer's attempt to replicate the Rotimatic using cheap materials has inevitably been a failure as none of these models have made it big and most have just disappeared with little trace in the digital world.
In a way, all these so-called Rotimatic alternatives are the same machine that is now sold in bulk on Alibaba.com with the brands changed. Strangely, even the promotion videos of a lot of these are the same.
Electra’s Rotillicious Roti robot
- Launched around 2017,
- A few demos in London, preorders and no updates afterwards.
- Facebook page link
Paras Automatic Magic Roti Maker Bangladesh
- Here is the Amazon link of the product
- launched around 2019 in Bangladesh
- Link to Facebook page
Auto Roti Pakistan
- Worst Roti quality
- Launched around in 2016 in Pakistan, soon after Rotimatic was launched.
- No website or official social media page can be found
Miyako roti maker
As you can see, this model has been found in several avatars but essentially it is the same.
If we look at each one of these machines, it’s not very difficult to understand that they look similar to each other. The design and layout are clearly a bad replica of Rotimatic. Whereas Rotimatic has its manufacturing base set in Malaysia and Singapore, all the other replicas are manufactured in China. Which in itself is explanatory of quality of the hardware these machines might have.
Roti maker launched by popular kitchen appliance company in India
Numerous brands exist, including a notable one in India endorsed by a celebrity chef, that have attempted to replicate Rotimatic without comprehending its engineering thoroughly, resulting in poor imitation.
Furthermore, it only highlights the importance of having a thorough understanding of a product's design and functionality before attempting to recreate it. Rotimatic is capable of making multiple recipes and can be upgraded with software updates, which remains an achievable feat across these knock-off devices.
This is the picture from their demos on YouTube. As you can see, there is no 'magic' (wink!) in this roti maker so if you do a Rotimatic vs this magical roti maker, you see the clear winner.
|
Features |
Rotimatic |
Competitor brand in India |
|
IOT and Wi-Fi enable |
Yes |
No |
|
Uses Artificial intelligence |
Yes |
No |
|
After sales Support |
24*7 chat available through app and email |
WhatsApp number available on the website |
|
Price (INR) |
1,35,000 |
1,02,000 |
|
Recipes |
Multiple |
Single (wheat) |
|
Customers as of 2023 |
100,000+ |
- |
|
Set of pans used |
Two |
One |
|
Manufactured in |
Malaysia |
China |
Rotimatic vs imitations: A comparison
The Roti quality
When accepting a new gadget or technology into our lives, what matters is the output. The design, layout, colors are all secondary especially when it comes to food. So, when it comes to all these machines, is the roti quality anywhere close to Rotimatic’s roti? This is another area where they are way off the mark.
Reason why the roti quality is bad
When we say that the hardware is exactly the same then you might wonder why the output is so bad? In 2010, prototype ITOR 6, the 3rd prototype out of the eleven of the Rotimatic prototypes, the rotis were tested by a group of people and they gave their feedback as the Rotimatic rotis came out very chewy. It was twelve years ago. An improvement was made and instead of one set of pans another set was added. Since when we make rotis traditionally, we use cold press to retain the moisture in the dough and then we put it on the hot pan for roasting. The idea was to keep one set for pressing (cold pans) and another for roasting (hot pans).
Since research wasn’t a thing for these companies, they have been making the same mistake forever. They use one set of pans for pressing and roasting and hence the output is identified as a bad, chewy and uncooked roti.
You can see that the roti looks dry and looks chewy as their moisture is lost. Some of these aren’t even properly roasted.
They cannot imitate the AI and IoT powered software
Rotimatic is the only roti maker that has an Iot powered software. It uses artificial intelligence to create a better roti each time than the last.
The AI helps with its 32-bit microprocessor that harmoniously orchestrates 10 motors, 15 sensors and 300 parts in parallel. The 10 motors work together based on the data from 15 different sensors, which measure things like temperature, position and the most complex and important metric, that is, consistency. Not only that, you can also connect your Rotimatic to Wi-Fi and download software upgrades and control your Rotimatic from anywhere.
None of the other companies uses this technology to make rotis or have even tried to include the software in their roti makers let alone using artificial intelligence. It also implies that settings in their machines cannot be upgraded and that for any new feature you’ll have to get a new version of their machine.
Multiple recipes
We are very proud to say that we have a community of 100,000+ Rotimatic owners who consistently share different recipes created by them using our Rotimatic.
Rotimatic was launched with one setting to make just wheat rotis but that has changed over years, thanks to it being an Iot device. A few upgrades have been included mainly Bajra, Jowar, Puris and Pizza bases and many more are yet to come.
Rotimatic is diverse and inclusive and it is highly inconceivable to compare roti quality and diversity of Rotimatic with these other Roti makers. We have already explored the roti quality of normal wheat roti so it’s really unlikely to expect them to be able to create these kinds of recipes with their roti makers.
Remote support
With its new age technology, the creators also took care of the advanced remote support. IOT enabled the Rotimatic to get data after each session of Roti making and if an issue appears, the agents can log into the machine and send software fixes via the cloud. We have 24/7 live chat service available through our IOS and Android app where customers can live chat with our agents for any issue they face while roti making.
None of the other companies have been able to take care of such an important aspect. There is no app, no website, maybe for a few of these they have a WhatsApp number and that’s it.
Lack of trust and accountability
When it comes to trust and accountability, these companies have in the past betrayed potential customers. Not so surprisingly, many of these companies also managed to get waiting lists and prebooking’s, yet leave 2022 alone, they never ever rolled their roti makers into the market and some of these never even returned the customer’s hard-earned money which they might have deposited as a prebooking amount.
Many of these so called ‘innovators’ don’t even have a website. They are listed across 3rd party E commerce website or some have their Facebook pages. They leave their dealers' names and numbers but for such a huge investment, is this level of accountability really justifiable?
There is no way for the customers to communicate once they deposit their money for pre booking. One might wonder, even if these companies have entered into the market, the kind of support and post purchase experience they would provide for an investment like this?
Rotimatic is in business and thriving
In 2013, when Rotimatic was first launched, it immediately took the world by storm with technology that was never seen before in kitchen appliances. The roti from Rotimatic was soft, hygienic, puffed up and fresh each time. It was as good as handmade with all the nutrition of a homemade roti.
The question arises is that does anyone use Rotimatic and is it still in business as of 2023?
As of 2023, we take a lot of pride in the fact that Rotimatic is a part of 100,000+ happy homes with 177million+ rotis made so far across 18 countries and still going strong with our new features and variants rolling in every now and then.
Even after all these years, people love Rotimatic and think of it as a family member. Without this support of our wonderful and extremely strong community of 100,000+ families, we couldn’t have been the number one roti maker.
After reading this blog, you might also find these articles useful
How Rotimatic is an investment and will help you save money in the long run
Find out why Rotimatic's after sales support is unmatched
Find out what Pranoti, our Founder has in common with Michell Obama's vision