Update: A Google spokesman provided a statement regarding the SEC filing:
We are in contact with the SEC to clarify the language in this 2013 filing, which does not reflect Googles product roadmap. Nest, which we acquired after this filing was made, does not have an ads-based model and has never had any such plans.
We can, of course, always assume they might change their minds later.
And yet, the SEC filing
specifically called out
thermostats as one case where "mobile" advertising revenue opportunities exist:
wsj.com said:
In a December letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was disclosed Tuesday, the search giant said that it could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.
The Nest buyout didn't just happen overnight, that deal was obviously in the works when that letter to the SEC was written. "Clarification" is just PR-speak for "we didn't expect the details of that letter to the SEC to become public".
And, really, isn't this just blowing smoke up the SEC's arse because Google doesn't want to have to report mobile ad revenues separately, for all the world to see? I guarandamntee that their accounting and finance team has this info, Google is just going through whatever contortions they can dream up to not publish it. If I was a betting man, I'd say the SEC is going to get the information they asked for, in the format they requested, in the time frame they dictated.
And, yes, I do expect Google to change their minds at a later date and put ads on as many "Internet of things" devices as they can.
Including the Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. There's no way to justify that $3.2 billion purchase price otherwise.