The year of the “internet of everything”: Google buys Nest
Let’s start 2014 by discussing the main trend to emerge from this year’s CES: this is going to be the year that everything is connected. And to prove it, Google has just announced it has strengthened its position in hardware design and in the everything connected ambit through the acquisition of Nest Labs, a company that reinvents seemingly unexciting devices such as thermostats and smoke detectors, albeit with design credentials that have won it many fans.
At the heart of the company is a team headed by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, two former Applers who were a big part of the launch of the first iPod, and whose presence gives the whole operation a certain acqui-hire feel, supposing we can think in those terms about a price of $3.2 billion (the most recent valuation of the company was around $2 billion). Initial statements say that Nest will continue to operate as an independent company and will continue to reinvent things, but will be given a big hand in the intellectual property rights and software department (some recent products had software problems, while the company is also embroiled in lawsuits with monsters like Honeywell and others).
But there can be little doubt that the acquisition is part of a bigger objective, perhaps a role for the design team in coming up with a new line of hardware that Google is increasingly interested in, as well as in home automation and wearables, two areas where design plays a big, big role. No, Nest is much more than a company that designs clever electro-domestic products: this is a company with a strong design slant, able to open our homes to Google and give these two categories a major boost.
Nest is just one of a seemingly interminable list of acquisitions by Google, a company with enough resources to buy into any area where it sees potential. But in this case, aside from making Nest’s owners and shareholders very wealthy, it is setting a course for the immediate future: the integration of more and more information and devices into the web. In fact, the first concerns about this were not long in coming: the idea that Google would have access to data generated by Nest devices that can detect whether we are at home or not, or what temperature we like in our bedroom is not one that appeals to everybody, prompting a rapid response from Nest to calm those fears.
What is beyond doubt is that Nest and its team have provided Google with a direct entry into our homes via devices that may not seem very glamorous, but that are part of our day-to-day lives, and that have been reinvented, with all their consequences, in such a way that users find, well, useful. Programming your thermostat from your smartphone, which then integrates your preferences, and helps you save money, is a very different experience to the one we are used to. Integrating these kinds of options with Google Now is going to start happening very soon. Despite Nest’s initial welcome, its products remain very niche (a niche for people who can afford to spend $249 on a thermostat, or $129 on a smoke detector), but Google’s resources can play a role in expanding that niche.
This is an operation that Nest will doubtless appreciate for the boost and the potential it provides, and is one that Google will see as a way into a very interesting category. This is one of those acquisitions that a lot of people will be talking about very soon.
(En español, aquí)
