Nest Co-Founder Tony Fadell Leaving the Company

[Mac Fly (film)]

Best thing for the company really. Fadell seems like he had all of the temper issues and more that Steve had but without any of the genius.

The iPod, the Nest Thermostat. Saying he lacks genius in the way you did is your indirect way of labelling him stupid. I disagree with your assessment of him.

Being a great leader, running a great company and being able to produce a great product are in a way three separate talents, two of which overlap—and one of which Fadell has. Steve had enough elements of all three. It's like Steve knew when to be nice and when to be a wanker, whereas Fadell lacks such tact.

 

[TallManNY]

The writing was on the wall with some of the rumors we heard about turmoil at Nest as well as Google hiring a VP for hardware and Google being the one to announce an Amazon Echo competitor. I don't think Beats was worth the $3B Apple paid for it and I certainly don't think Nest was worth that much either. It is amusing to look back at when Google acquired Nest and all the articles bemoaning the fact that Apple didn't.

Hard to say with Beats. It is different because the headphones sell at high margins and high volume. So Beats made a profit from day one. I don't know if it will be $3 billion. But if their headphones keep selling for a few more years I don't think it will be a loss.

 

[Andres Cantu]

That's what he gets for being a traitor!

 

[Apple Corps]

Well, Nest is one of the biggest mistakes of Apple. They should have purchased the company to lay the foundations of HomeKit with a premium product. Now, Nest is going down the drain at Google, and Apple has the empty shell that is HomeKit.

Not so sure about that. We purchased several Nests for the home and I would not do that again. Over priced, buggy operation and difficult interface with a number of well known HVAC systems, a "learning function" that is really a pain in the ass. It is quite sleek looking, but the rotate and click UI has cool factor but, for me, awkward functionality.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Hard to say with Beats. It is different because the headphones sell at high margins and high volume. So Beats made a profit from day one. I don't know if it will be $3 billion. But if their headphones keep selling for a few more years I don't think it will be a loss.

Apple Music revenue comes from the same acquisition.

 

[Abazigal]

http://readwrite.com/2014/01/15/nest-apple-google/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2089222/the-macalope-weekly-disclaimers.html

And the irony was that when Nest was purchased, the Internet was filled with criticism that Apple should have bought Nest and that they were not innovative and losing to Google.

 

[Stella]

Friday's are always slow. Got to get the readership for ads.

what does this have to do with Apple? slow day in apple tech news i guess

 

[Abazigal]

The first Nest Thermostat shipped in 2011 was groundbreaking (the same year iPhone 4S shipped). All subsequent updates are mostly subtle redesign with little functional improvements. Imagine using a 5-year old iPhone 4S today with very slightly redesign (a bit thinner) and almost the same software.

Isn't that the nature of an appliance like a thermostat? It basically had one job. What else do you expect it to do?

 

[Zirel]

Generally people comment on what a great leader Jobs was and damn near canonize him, yet he was off the rails more often than not and often a less than stellar human being. When someone of similar temperament comes along, who is a far better human in this case, he is looked upon in a lesser light, in spite of the fact that he, arguably, did more than the aforementioned to help the company get to where it is today.

I'm sure you knew personally, and very well, the two people.

Steve Jobs was a good guy, from the people that really knew him. Of course he had many enemies.

But it's undeniable that he was a great CEO.

Now this Fadell? Everybody at Nest hated him. There's no redemption. Flop after flop, crappy products after crappy products. He has a long history of being rude with his employees. Can't behave with a Google credit card. Firing him was not enough. Poor Google engineers.
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Well, Nest is one of the biggest mistakes of Apple. They should have purchased the company to lay the foundations of HomeKit with a premium product. Now, Nest is going down the drain at Google, and Apple has the empty shell that is HomeKit.

They need Nest for what exactly?

Ecobee and Honeywell have products that do the same, without the Google crap, and guess what, they are compatible with HomeKit!

Apple obviously knew what kind of guy Fadell was, that's why they didn't buy them...

 

[radiology]

Tim, did you hear that?

I'm with you on this one.

HEY TIM! DID HEAR THAT!

hopefully he'll listen to us.

 

[citysnaps]

Well, Nest is one of the biggest mistakes of Apple. They should have purchased the company to lay the foundations of HomeKit with a premium product. Now, Nest is going down the drain at Google, and Apple has the empty shell that is HomeKit.

Actually, it was one of Apple's smartest moves.

 

[radiology]

Isn't that the nature of an appliance like a thermostat? It basically had one job. What else do you expect it to do?

I have been saying the same thing about the fitness trackers. Once they saturate the market, they will stop growing, and once that happens, you know what Wall Street and investors do with their stocks....toilet flushing sound...

 

[duervo]

In a blog post, Fadell says he has decided the time is right to "leave the Nest," a decision that was originally made late last year. Fadell will not be present for day to day activities at Nest, but he plans to remain involved with the company as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry Page.Fadell says his new role as advisor will provide him with "time and flexibility" to pursue new opportunities and "create and disrupt other industries." He's leaving Nest with a two-year roadmap in place and Marwan Fawaz, a former Motorola executive, will be joining Nest as CEO.

Am I the only one that snickered at that?

 

[Bbqthis]

The iPod, the Nest Thermostat. Saying he lacks genius in the way you did is your indirect way of labelling him stupid. I disagree with your assessment of him.

Being a great leader, running a great company and being able to produce a great product are in a way three separate talents, two of which overlap—and one of which Fadell has. Steve had enough elements of all three. It's like Steve knew when to be nice and when to be a wanker, whereas Fadell lacks such tact.

I have always believed he was given more credit than due on the iPod. I don't consider the nest thermostat a particularly groundbreaking product. But I'm happy to be disagreed with respectfully.

 

[Rogifan]

Hard to say with Beats. It is different because the headphones sell at high margins and high volume. So Beats made a profit from day one. I don't know if it will be $3 billion. But if their headphones keep selling for a few more years I don't think it will be a loss.

I still don't see what Apple got with Beats. Read this really good blog post from Federico Vicitti. The whole pitch with Apple Music was how Apple was going to do discovery better and how you need human curation, not algorithms blah blah blah. Yet so many say discovery on Spotify is better than Apple Music.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/i-made-you-a-mixtape/

So Apple got a profitable headphone company at its peak popularity. But did they really need headphones? I'd say no.

 

[Soccertess]

hmmm... Now if only Tim Cook would leave!

 

[John Mcgregor]

I still don't see what Apple got with Beats. Read this really good blog post from Federico Vicitti. The whole pitch with Apple Music was how Apple was going to do discovery better and how you need human curation, not algorithms blah blah blah. Yet so many say discovery on Spotify is better than Apple Music.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/i-made-you-a-mixtape/

So Apple got a profitable headphone company at its peak popularity. But did they really need headphones? I'd say no.

Everyone knows Beats. That's what they bought.

 

[ShadovvMoon]

Why is everyone hating on Forstall?

 

[PhotodudeCA]

This is good news. Nest had a groundbreaking product and Fadell failed to capitalize on it and design and produce a coherent ecosystem of home products. Anyone who has a security system at home knows how clunky and badly designed most of the components are, and most of them had Nest redesign written all over it. Nest had hardware with motion detectors (both Protect and Thermostat) and Dropcam for a while, so it should have taken them no time to produce a coherent and comprehensive security system solution that would tie into the existing Nest ecosystem and blow everything else on the market away. Instead, there is no such security solution on the horizon, they cannot even make a sealed Dropcam that you can install outside the house (despite constant pleas for that kind of solution on all the forums). It is a very large market that Nest missed ( and once people install cameras on their houses, they are not switching, becuase its much harder than changing a thermostat or smoke detector).

Fadell also failed to capitalize on Google's software might, preferring to do everything in-house, with predictable results. Add to this persistent rumors of arrogant behavior and difficult corporate culture at Nest, and you start understanding why this news has been long overdue.

 

[McGiord]

This is good news. Nest had a groundbreaking product and Fadell failed to capitalize on it and design and produce a coherent ecosystem of home products. Anyone who has a security system at home knows how clunky and badly designed most of the components are, and most of them had Nest redesign written all over it. Nest had hardware with motion detectors (both Protect and Thermostat) and Dropcam for a while, so it should have taken them no time to produce a coherent and comprehensive security system solution that would tie into the existing Nest ecosystem and blow everything else on the market away. Instead, there is no such security solution on the horizon, they cannot even make a sealed Dropcam that you can install outside the house (despite constant pleas for that kind of solution on all the forums). It is a very large market that Nest missed ( and once people install cameras on their houses, they are not switching, becuase its much harder than changing a thermostat or smoke detector).

Fadell also failed to capitalize on Google's software might, preferring to do everything in-house, with predictable results. Add to this persistent rumors of arrogant behavior and difficult corporate culture at Nest, and you start understanding why this news has been long overdue.

Certainly you captured it pretty well.
Tired of waiting for something comprehensive a couple of months ago I bought for testing the Netgear Arlo camera system and let me tell you that I am not returning them, but buying more cameras.
http://www.arlo.com/en-us/
So far it has worked pretty good for me.
But the trend is ridiculous to have several bridges one for the cameras, one for the lights, one for the thermostat, and some more to come.
We will see if the Apple "home kit device" will enable us to get rid of all the bridges and use only one...

 

[vvswarup]

Well, Nest is one of the biggest mistakes of Apple. They should have purchased the company to lay the foundations of HomeKit with a premium product. Now, Nest is going down the drain at Google, and Apple has the empty shell that is HomeKit.

I am speechless by your comment. Nest is one of Apple's biggest mistakes because Nest went down the drain after being bought by Google? HomeKit might be an "empty shell" but at least that empty shell didn't cost $3 billion.

 

[tgwaste]

Great. Maybe they will get things right now.
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I am speechless by your comment. Nest is one of Apple's biggest mistakes because Nest went down the drain after being bought by Google? HomeKit might be an "empty shell" but at least that empty shell didn't cost $3 billion.

Maybe. Would had loved to see what Apple would had done with it. I personally own 4 nest products. They are high quality hardware but the software is definitely on the lacking side.

I own nothing related to HomeKit. Is that even a thing yet?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

The writing was on the wall with some of the rumors we heard about turmoil at Nest as well as Google hiring a VP for hardware and Google being the one to announce an Amazon Echo competitor. I don't think Beats was worth the $3B Apple paid for it and I certainly don't think Nest was worth that much either. It is amusing to look back at when Google acquired Nest and all the articles bemoaning the fact that Apple didn't.

While people can disagree on the audio quality of Beats products, buying the company was a safe business decision for Apple. Beats had roughly $1.4 billion in 2013 (I can only imagine that number has grown somewhat since then), making the $3 billion purchase rational, at least compared to Nest, which only had $300 million in revenue when Google acquired it.

 

[Tiger8]

Fadell, Fawaz!!! Call Donald trump, they are Arab, Fawaz might be Muslim too! The horror!

 

[smacrumon]

I really do not understand some of the hatred and mockery of Scott Forstall. I guess if you freeze frame an Apple product video you can capture anyone in a moment of being highly expressive. Those commenters engaging in the practice really mustn't be true Apple fans nor have appreciation for Apple history.

Scott Forstall was part of the team from NeXT that helped Apple survive its near death experience. The lead designer of Mac OSX's aqua user interface as well as leading the original software development team for the iPhone and iPad, Scott Forstall participated in giving Apple its distinctive advantage in the market. For a long time these software were much loved and highly regarded as the best in the industry.