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Google Acquiring Tony Fadell-Founded Nest for $3.2 Billion

kuwxman said:
My big hope is somehow this drops the prices a bit. I love my Nest to death and would love to add a couple Protects, but at $120+/each that isn't an option.
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That is my hope too. I like Nest, and I don't think Google will ruin them. I see greener pastures.
 
kalex said:
And android users don't like well designed products?
I'm an android user and I have 3 nests in my house.
Its a nice product but not open enough ( i guess thats where your "apple influence" comment comes in. I would like for it to be more open and allow better integration with other products and services.
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Sure some Android Users like nice products. But many simply buy the cheapest smartphone that they can get. So actually they are intentionally taking significantly inferior products in order to save money. But Nest is, I assume, a much more expensive solution as compared to the other controllers out there. And even more so, I suspect that Nest needs people to take off their functioning controller and replace it with a Nest on a fairly regular basis in order for their business model to work.

That all sounds more like an Apple customer than whomever is out there buying the $1 on contract Androids.
 
andiwm2003 said:
well, i hope for google's sake that nest has a master plan to connect the entire house with gadgets from the door bell via smoke detectors to the telephone and the security cam. would be cool to have all of this networked. privacy goes out the window of course.

i wanted a good solution for a security camera but everything on the market right now has some flaw (or is ridiculously expensive and over the top for normal boring people)
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I've never liked EVERYTHING to be controlled by one thing or system. It just lends itself to being hacked and then you being screwed. Where I live we just got over a power outage due to a severe ice storm that lasted, for thousands of people, over 4+ days. On top of that the mercury dipped well below freezing to frigid temperatures. For some they were lucky enough to have a mixture of gas stoves, fire place in conjunction with electrical appliances. At least for them they had their stoves to cook their food and their fireplaces to keep warm. If everything gets centralized then you're looking at nothing working.
 
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?

Someone is laughing on the way to the bank.
 
Now that's a lot of money for not that much. A fraction of the $3B would get you a really good team that can build a comparable or better (improved) product. Sometimes I wonder why a company would fork out this kind of money instead of doing the development in-house.
 
I am about to start some major remodeling of my house and was intending to install Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. Now I won't. I do not trust Google and deal with them as minimally as possible.
 
atsang said:
Was android support ever in doubt? The app is exactly the same on both platforms, released at the same exact time.
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Not for this product, but the next "Nest" product or maybe one after that might not have gotten Android support. It depends not the growth of iOS. While Android growth is happening in the US, those users aren't actually using their phones for much more than texting and emailing. The Apps aren't selling, the websites aren't seeing Android traffic, etc. So if Nest customers were all using iOS devices on their Nest products, why support Android Apps?

But I guess even if only 10% of their customers are using Android, then it is worth it to cross develop the App.
 
GeneralChang said:
You don’t have a Google account, do you? Great services, can’t argue with the pricetag, but these days their entire focus is to force/trick everyone into using G+.

I don’t want to use G+, let me watch my YouTube videos in peace!
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I am a pretty big fan of google but this G+ pushing has started to sour me. I agree - let me watch youtube in peace, stop rearranging gmail to show me G+ stuff I am not using. It's irritating. Like Apple not allowing an app ecosystem on Apple TV. Well, more annoying than that
 
Mackan said:
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?

Someone is laughing on the way to the bank.
Click to expand...

Quote:
Fadell would not comment on reports earlier this year that Nest had been selling approximately 40,000 of its Learning thermostats per month, but did reveal that the thermostat was now in “almost 1% of U.S. homes.”

“It’s not just early adopters,” he said of these first customers, “but a lot of different homes and demographics.”

Given that there were 113.9 million occupied homes in the U.S. in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, that would suggest that in the two years since it launched, the Nest Thermostat has found its way into close to 1.1 million homes. At a retail price of roughly $250 each, that could mean revenues of roughly $275 million so far from the Learning Thermostat alone."

Yeah, so they are only paying about 15 times revenue. Now that is still a ton of money. Especially since that is a multiple of revenue and probably means Google is paying 100 times the actual profit earned. But Google can afford to spend that kind of cash. They need to find new revenue sources to justify their stock price. As long as they are taking some action, the market will give them the benefit of the doubt, I think.
 
sad day

Argh! That is all I need is google snooping for more information and pushing ads to my thermostat. "Time to get new air filters - here are some recommendations". Or smoke alarm alerts when some knucklehead sends me a Google+ invite.
 
X38 said:
I am about to start some major remodeling of my house and was intending to install Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. Now I won't. I do not trust Google and deal with them as minimally as possible.
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Yet another ignorant 'Google sucks' comment. Stick to Honeywell then.
 
Glad I read this, I was going to buy one of those smoke detectors. Now, I will look more carefully for competing products.
 
Mackan said:
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?
$3.2 billion?

Someone is laughing on the way to the bank.
Click to expand...

But isn't it?
$100 billion
$100 billion
$100 billion?

That's how much cash Apple has in the bank earning 1% interest.

Apple can buy so many companies, but they don't. Apple could invest twice as much in R&D, but they don't. Apple doesn't need to buy Nest, or Square, or Flipboard, but Apple does need to do something, or the world is going to pass them by.
 
I received a Nest thermostat and smoke detector for Christmas.

Overall it's been a positive experience. However, the battery on the thermostat did decide to run down during the coldest day of the winter. There's nothing like walking into your home at 7 p.m. with the temperature at 48 degrees. And then having to charge your thermostat for 2 hours using a USB cable and power adapter you had to supply yourself. :mad:

Nest assures me it was a "wifi bug" and that it's being taken care of with a future firmware update, but jeez.

My smoke detector is the battery-based one and it doesn't sync up with the thermostat as nicely as I thought it would. Nest quickly updated their page to reflect that the battery-based smoke alarm doesn't constantly sense motion like the wired based one. Of course, this happened after I had already asked for it.

I do hope Google keeps them independent. I knew Nest was going to be looking for buyers since Honeywell (and others) are suing them. It's expensive to fend off lawsuits and license patents from household giants like Honewell and BRK (First Alert).

I'm not worried about iOS support, but Nest was supposedly working on Windows Phone/8/RT support that will likely get cancelled.
 
This pisses me off.

Too angry to write straight…I actually screamed when I saw this. My wife ran into the room wondering what's wrong. What's wrong? My favorite non-Apple company is now owned by the evil empire and our home is going to start spying on us. That's what's fraking wrong!

I'm fuming mad.
 
What about the privacy issues related to Google?

There’s perception and there’s reality, and the reality of the situation is that the Nest data will stay with Nest. Our SLA will not change, our Terms of Service will not change. Nest data will be used to improve Nest data, that’s all.
Click to expand...

If true, why then did Google buy them? Google is all about data mining and statistics. What do they stand to gain from this acquisition otherwise?
 
I'm amazed with the "luck" of one person of Nest; Mike Matas.

He worked at Apple (photoboot, iPhone 1), Pushpop Press (before iBooks existed), then Facebook, Nest, and probable now Google. He's under 30 I believe.

I'd like to be successful as him.
 
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