Brushless motors ARE catching on-the newest TriStar vacuum has it.Rainbows have these motors.NSS and some Shop Vac industrial wet-dry vacuums have SR brushless motors.Actually these are a Switched Reluctance motor.It is kinda difficult to explain how they work-they have a stator like an induction motor.The rotor is diffrent-its a cogged peice of laminated iron.The design has been around a long time-but took modern circuitry to make the motor work and be economical to use.The motor uses switching pulses to make it work-by magnetizing the rotor sort of like a stepper motor-but more smoothly.And these are capable of both variable speed and torque.I think we will see this motor used more-and some kitchen small appliances are using these motors.They have a wider speed range than an induction motor run from a VFD or inverter drive.