iRobot's European Opportunity

As we've noted before, iRobot has a substantial opportunity to dramatically increase overseas sales, particularly in Europe. iRobot currently sells about 90 percent of its home robots in North America, which is way too high a percentage. A company like Apple, for example, sells close to half of its wares overseas. And with the surging Euro, the time has never been better to set up a European beachhead. iRobot announced earlier this year that they would be investing in direct sales in Europe, instead of a multilayered distribution approach that resulted in high prices, low margins, few sales and complaints about the difficulty of getting service. iRobot recently announced the next step in its European venture, signing GSI Commerce to run its European web operations. The sooner, the better. (I'd hope iRobot would also start marketing its Roomba and Scooba products as environmentally and global warming friendly because they don't suck 12 amps like a traditional vacuum.)
Of course, I also think iRobot should start opening up a few retail outlets in key shopping malls to show off its wares. (Preferably as close as possible to Apple stores