home after Google bought Nest, thermostats and factory detectors to resume the project of creating the smart home. / AFP
To understand why Google just paid $ 3,200 million for a company that manufactures thermostats and smoke detectors, observe some of his previous attempts to invent a “smart home”.
were more than simple object lessons on what not to do. Although previous efforts came to failure, highlight the range of capabilities of Google. They also highlight why, after its acquisition this week Nest Labs, seems to have assumed a formidable technological leadership in a market that has barely been invented.
Google’s first attempt was five years ago and said in an Internet service called PowerMeter. It was a service online to monitor energy use in the home. But it turned out that most people had better things to do than keep track of their energy consumption on a Web site.
Then came a software platform called Android @ Home, directed to manufacturing that would incorporate “intelligence” of having internet connected objects that manufactured home. The first of these products should be a LED bulb could ignite using a smartphone app. Manufacturing dropped the idea before it was launched.
internet service and a software platform were good ideas. The missing ingredient, however, was a really useful piece of intelligent hardware. To be more precise, a product for the consumer that is easy to use, attractive and meet a number of capabilities with an intuitive interface. Software, hardware and online service working in concert to improve home life
And who would be best to see that Tony Fadell, whose awards are reputed to have been the principal inventor of the iPod and the founder of Nest? The music player from Apple was the device that launched the modern revolution in consumer hardware. Although enjoyable by itself, the iPod would have been nothing without the software and online store that brought back to life the industry of digital music.
Fadell then signed their lessons with the iPod in your Nest thermostat, the control point used as a rudder to program the unit (Honeywell has launched legal action, claiming that the circular control unfairly copy of their own inventions).
Nest thermostat is connected in line with forecasts and climate information in its own sensors and movements of the user to guess what fixed temperature.
This is where Google comes into play. Although it would have to come as a visionary Fadell existed for the idea, the device is nothing by itself. In an interview with the Financial Times, the founder of Nest was forthright regarding what is behind: 80% of the work behind the products of this company is aimed to create and operate the infrastructure on which they depend
little infrastructure to connect better than one operated by Google. It is not just the scale of their data centers or bandwidth capacity of their networks: the Internet company could be in a good position to deliver the data they collect Nest appliances and turn them into valuable intelligence <. / p>
In this regard, Google can provide two active. One is the huge amount of data it collects. Nest Combining information with information from your other devices promises to give Google any rival approaches to learn your preferences without, not only with respect to the temperature at which wakes up, but how much time is devoted to breakfast before going to work and what route taken to get there.
Another important assets are the skills needed to use this information, as the design of algorithms that make intelligence that can be used to inform useful gadgets. If Google could anticipate what time leaves home in the morning, I could tell you about traffic conditions.
privacy fears can certainly generate discomfort, but an intelligent home that truly understands and can respond to their needs exceed these concerns. And if you try to use Google data in the home to deliver even more relevant alerts, would be part of a tacit commitment that its members already accepted long ago.
At least that’s the theory. Much remains to prove that it works. Build desire for smart objects for the home will not be easy to achieve. Google must also demonstrate that it can make a significant amount of money as you delve deeper into the hardware, where profit margins are lower. But if you can make all the parts work together smart home while creating new devices, it would be hard to match.
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