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Google to Acquire Nest

investor.google.com

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Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#421

Post by BugBrother »

psbp wrote: post #267
pwnna wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with the statement, lately Google's action has been concerning (with things like Reader, Google+ push, and what not). I just don't want to see Google dominating the world. Competition is nice.

Are you implying that google did a disservice to the competition by creating a desire for a product and then retiring it with months of warning for competitors to develop their product and attract google's large user base while allowing users to easily migrate their information to those services?

I agree with vdaniuk, that it is a good point. It changed my mind a bit.

On consideration, I'm a big fan of Google, Apple and Amazon. The thing that makes me (and probably others) nervous about all three is that they are too big. For instance, a monopolist strategy (Microsoft style) might appear someday.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#422

Post by bertil »

jader201 wrote: post #139
MrZongle2 wrote: post #11

Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?

I'm trying to think of a tech acquisition that was favorable, or at the very least not unfavorable for the consumer. It seems like tech (maybe all ) acquisitions almost always favor the buyer and not the consumer. Does anybody have any good examples?

I would argue Hotmail — Microsoft brought scaling and maturity, and kept a stronghold on the net long enough to actually threaten and push Google further. I doubt Gmail would have appeared without that acquisition.

But then again: the dozen other examples cited above are certainly better.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#423

Post by pacofvf »

sliverstorm wrote: post #143
Karunamon wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

? Only if you're incapable of telling the difference between commas and periods, I suppose.

It isn't factually dishonest, because it is an accurate number, and anyone can make sense of it. I say it is intellectually dishonest because it reads to me as a clear attempt to make the number appear more impressive. Borrowing from Wikipedia, "intellectual honesty": Facts are presented in an unbiased manner, and not twisted to give misleading impressions It would still be accurate to say it was a $3,200,000,000.000…

decimals doesn't have commas, if you want to add 12 digits of precision then you should have to write: $3,200,000,000.000000000000 , also when writing down a money amount, those two extra digits are for the cents(exactly 2 digits of precision), It would be ultra weird to write with 1 or 3 digits of precision, or zero for that matter.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#424

Post by lovemenot »

foobarian wrote: post #234
tadfisher wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, Android, Inc. was an acquisition with a similar purpose–to break into a new product space–and it grew into a fully-supported division. I don't think Google will treat this as an acquihire situation.

I wonder what their play is. One neat thing about Nest is that they are doing what many products failed to do before, and that's to kind of become a platform for the "internet of things." It's a thermostat and smoke detector now, but it could easily soon become more stuff, sensors and actuators, and it could easily all work together toward enabling a smarter home. Yes if you are a hardware/microcontroller geek you ca…

Perhaps we'll see a return of Google Power Meter. That was an ambitious project to promote a data standard, towards the goal of better efficiency through consumers' close monitoring of their own power usage. But it failed to gain traction in the industry and Google did not double down. Until now. It seems they may now think that it is better to make transparent decisions automatically rather than by providing information for the consumer to take action on themselves. Power consumption is a large opportunity and one that Google understands from its data centre operations. Certainly it is hard to justify the cost of Nest on its current portfolio and acqui-hire alone.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#426

Post by bertil »

akgerber wrote: post #389
nate_meurer wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price makes me choke as well. But I think Nest's real value is as a market distruptor, the evidence being Honeywell's lawsuit and furious attempts to update their own products with comparable features.

Nest isn't disruptive: they don't offer an inferior product for a lower price. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/05/disr... They have the classic business model of a better product for a higher price. If the thermostat market had consisted entirely of Nest and then Honeywell introduced cheap, crappy thermostats, that'd be disruption.

Well, Google might very well change the price point.

I really agree with the premise of that article, with one major exception: when the real price is your attention. Internal combustion engines, iOS, can legitimately be seen as disruption: they were more expensive than their equivalent, but thosed need so much effort… Nest might be the same for domotic.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#427

Post by maxerickson »

VLM wrote: post #330
VLM wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but in much of the country people pay many hundreds of dollars every month during the winter or summer. If a smarter thermostat saves 10% of that" Not mathematically / thermodynamically possible, sorry. I live in a cooler area but not the real cold areas up north. During the recent polar vortex, which momentarily was centered over my house (and I'm not kidding) we got down to -15. (70 - -15) = delta t of 85 degrees.…

I hate to reply to a reply, but if you'd like an example of saving 10% energy in a really cold area where bills are really high, lets take my sister, a 40hr a week worker where it got down to -30 during the recent cold snap. Now 70 - -30 = 100 degree delta T. Now the simple way to save 10% would be to permanently set the thermostat to 60F. But thats a bit chilly. So she works 40 hrs a week which works out to 25% of t…

Just to say it again, extreme cold is where a thermostat is of little help.

But imagine that there are 4 or 5 months a year where the outdoor temperature is 15 or 20 degrees colder than a comfortable indoor temperature. And imagine turning down the thermostat during the night in those periods, not just during unoccupied times.

(I realize that more energy is used during cold periods, but some huge portion of the country lives in areas that rarely see 20 for the several months they are below 60).

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#428

Post by smileysteve »

magicalist wrote: post #281
jffry wrote: post #6

Coming soon: audio ads, broadcast throughout your home via your Nest Protect. Since it knows if you're moving, it can wait and play the ad when it knows you're there, allowing Google to charge a higher cost per impression.

Yes, just like all those ads from that mobile device that people carry with them everywhere, has a screen and speakers, and knows when you're moving all the time instead of just while moving directly in front of the thermostat.

> just like all those ads from that mobile device that people carry with them everywhere, has a screen and speakers

Your sarcasm is lost because Google does plan on monetizing (adding ads) to Gmail for Android.

Or that they do track your location often for deals, google+, etc.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#429

Post by dangrossman »

dsl wrote: post #401
dangrossman wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're misinformed. Nest can hold a set temperature like any other thermostat. It'll do so better than any other thermostat, in fact, by learning the efficiency of your heater and A/C so that it doesn't overshoot your targets, and takes into account whether the thermostat is in direct sunlight part of the day, and airflow in your house. It can also be told to hold a temperature forever, to hold a threshold forever (c…

Using all sorts of fancy technology licensed from Honeywell.

Honeywell has not licensed any technology to Nest.

There's nothing really fancy about a thermometer, humidity sensor, IR motion sensor and a bit of software anyway. Which is why Nest had no trouble identifying prior art to each of the patents Honeywell tried to assert (and made no offer to license). They carved their niche by being the only company that cared to make the most of some simple inputs and packaged them up in a way that looked different from the rest of the market. It's somewhat similar to the iPod/iPhone story.

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