The area of service robots has steadily gained interest over the years as an attempt for deploying robots to tackle problems faced in our everyday lives. In this article, a survey on the application areas of home service robots is presented. A collection of robotic appliances is selected to be introduced based on their application objective of being an active part in a home environment. The dominant application areas of robotic home service are identified and overviewed through the governing dipole of: a) consumer, and b) research. The functional capabilities of each robot are addressed from a design and specification point of view, in order to highlight their key enabling features and justify their inclusion to each application area.