Nest absorbed into Google to better battle HomeKit, Alexa for home automation supremacy
Google is merging the Nest and the native Google Home hardware team to "supercharge" the goal of conquering the smarthome market.
Google's Senior Vice President of Hardware Rick Osterloh made the announcement in a blog post on Wednesday afternoon. The move comes after Nest had "doubled its hardware portfolio" in a year, and sold more devices than the company had sold in the past two years.
In the post, Google says that:
The company notes that the Google and Nest teams already work closely, so little, if any, disruption is likely.
Before his ultimate departure from Apple following the iPod's development, Tony Fadell set out to build a new home, and in the process found a market opportunity for a smart thermostat to better control climate control systems. As a result, Fadell founded Nest Labs in 2010.
Shortly thereafter, in 2011, the first generation Nest Learning Thermostat shipped. On May 30, 2012, the Nest appeared at the Apple online and retail stores started stocking it.
On January 13, 2014, Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. Apple pulled the Nest from store shelves on July 22 of 2015.
Google's Senior Vice President of Hardware Rick Osterloh made the announcement in a blog post on Wednesday afternoon. The move comes after Nest had "doubled its hardware portfolio" in a year, and sold more devices than the company had sold in the past two years.
In the post, Google says that:
"All of Google's investments in machine learning and AI, they can very clearly benefit Nest products. It just makes sense to be developing them together," Osterloh said in an interview with Cnet about the merging. "It's the natural thing to evolve to."The goal is to supercharge Nest's mission: to create a more thoughtful home, one that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it. By working together, we'll continue to combine hardware, software and services to create a home that's safer, friendlier to the environment, smarter and even helps you save money-- built with Google's artificial intelligence and the Assistant at the core.
The company notes that the Google and Nest teams already work closely, so little, if any, disruption is likely.
Before his ultimate departure from Apple following the iPod's development, Tony Fadell set out to build a new home, and in the process found a market opportunity for a smart thermostat to better control climate control systems. As a result, Fadell founded Nest Labs in 2010.
Shortly thereafter, in 2011, the first generation Nest Learning Thermostat shipped. On May 30, 2012, the Nest appeared at the Apple online and retail stores started stocking it.
On January 13, 2014, Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. Apple pulled the Nest from store shelves on July 22 of 2015.
Comments
Just like they super charged Motorola!
"But ... But... what about the data!!? OMG!!" I don't have the first concern that somehow Google means me harm, or planning to break into my home when they think I'm away, or selling personal info about me or my home to anyone else. Integrating Nest with Google Home rather than treating them as a 3rd party like they do now is better for me as an owner of both. Home control should be easier than it is, and this a a step towards that.
I'm sure Google is working on finding a way to implement data gathering with Nest. Google cannot survive without its data collecting and ads business. Never touch anything Google with a 100ft pole! I don't want ads about my furnace, or filters or whatever since it sees its running all the time or something.
I personally would trust Honeywell over any of these companies they understand environmental controls better than anyone. It took them some time to get on the bandwagon for smart controls with an smartphone but they have good solution and it works with all kinds of heating can cooling systems.
https://yourhome.honeywell.com/Lyric-T6-Pro-Thermostat-TH6320WF2003-TH6220WF2006
The issue is who is the master of the house and get to control the temperature, and when the Master is gone then what does spouse have to deal with hot or cool temps while you are gone. These systems has to be able to deal with when multiply people are in the house and what to do when one or all are not there at any given time.
I bought gen1 but won’t be replacing it. If google doesn’t want to play in the walled garden I’m sure not leaving it for their corporate strategic benefit.
IMHO anyone who decides to involve themselves in home automation whether it be a thermostat, or smartspeaker, or door lock, or a full security system should obviously understand some user data is going to be involved, and therefor pay attention to the pertinent privacy policies and sharing declarations.
https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/13/5305430/interview-tony-fadell-nest-google-acquisition
https://privacy.google.com/your-data.html
Amazing that so many people are so anxious to spread around "someone said" as fact without ever bothering to check, or perhaps even caring in the first place if it's true or not. Truth and knowledge wasn't the goal when they repeat it .
EDIT: I stand corrected. The entire Nest team including software development is being moved to Osterloh's domain, so I was wrong.