By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The connected home is more than a buzzword, it is an emerging platform and one of the next stages where our smartphones become smarter by controlling our homes remotely.
Google, who acquired smart thermostat and smoke alarm maker Nest, recently added popular IP camera maker Dropcam into the mix. With this acquisition and now a three-pronged stable of connected home products, Google will run Nest as its consumer end subsidiary which now has the ability to integrate thermostat, smoke alarm and detection and now video security remotely into one single ecosystem.
Google is serious about this next phase and it has already told developers that it will be a major component of the Android experience, Moreover, Google is selling the Nest products directly on its Play store, a space reserved for only the most desirable Google devices like its Nexus smartphones and tablets.
Google Bought Nest for $3.5 billion, Dropcam cost them $555 million, there’s no way Google would sink that much money in products and projects that it doesn’t believe can be profitable in the long run. Google’s also approached the situation shrewdly, not known for being good at creating hardware, they simply acquired already popular products as well as the brain trust that can create more innovation.
Some say that home automation doesn’t fit into Google’s real business, which is selling advertising. Many even questioned the acquisition as something with sinister undertones, implying that Dropcam will be used to spy on people’s homes. A preposterous notion, but one that’s running wild nonetheless.
It is said that Dropcam will adopt Nest’s privacy policy after the acquisition. That means data will not be shared with any other firm, including Google, without a user’s permission. Fingers crossed.
Another big question is whether the supporting applications for the new Nest and Dropcam devices will be cross platform. Nest and Dropcam initially came out with iOS apps and then branched out to Android, now that it is owned by Google, will certain features and functionality be lessened for iPhone users in order to bolster the preference for Android powered devices? These are all valid points and questions that can be answered through time.
In a way, Google is acting very much like a sports team with a big budget. They’re buying the pieces they need instead of developing talent and product in-house. Just like in sports, the challenge here is chemistry, and hoping that all disparate parties can work towards a common goal and put differences and rivalries apart.
All of a sudden, Google is the biggest player in the home automation game and now not only has the cloud services to power the ecosystem but also the necessary hardware product as well as the software to enable a solid and growing platform.
