$3.2 BILLION?! Was Nest Labs making a profit? Seemed to me like they made cool devices that no one bought.
Google to Acquire Nest
491–500 of 590 posts
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#492Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would have much rather seen this as a technology/algorithm hire from a company like Honeywell or some other established HVAC company, which could have kept selling the Nest (and their new smoke detector, etc.) but also incorporated the technology into higher-tech commercial/industrial systems, where you some companies could probably save millions a year through more intelligent control and management systems.
I never found my Nest to be all that intelligent beyond "I wonder if he'll notice it's colder now?" "Oh wait, he turned me up, I guess he noticed." It's a game of cat and mouse with that darn auto-away enabled sometimes.
I find the learning functionality to be a nuisance. What makes it awesome is the design, the remote control, and the scheduling interface.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#493Earlier quoted context omitted.
Had Apple bought nest, you'd have to log into your icloud account to manage it, via your idevice, with no other management abilities available. Apple is absolutely horrible at playing well with others.
I like that we all have a wonderful opportunity to bash Google, and you turn this around and bash Apple instead. Tsk tsk...
He asked wistfully what would happen if Apple had bought it. I answered that pretty much all the big players are motherfuckers that want you to do everything in their sandbox. Now, you may consider Apple's motherfuckery to be more acceptable than Google's, but they still engage in serious acts of motherfuckery.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#494Earlier 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.…
The target audience of the Nest is someone who leaves their thermostat on the same temperature setting all the time, whose house is empty a significant portion of the time, and who doesn't have the knowledge or desire to buy a manually programmable thermostat. You don't sound like you are in that audience, but that doesn't mean the audience doesn't exist or that the product is foolish.
IMO, Nest appeals to the people for whom it does the least amount of good: engineers.
Engineers and technical people tend to analyze things like their energy bill already. They also tend to love gadgets.
A couple of parts of Nest that aren't usually factored in are the convenience factor of using your favorite device to control the thermostat remotely and the cost of your current programmable thermostat. If new home owners choose Nest instead of another thermostat they only have to save $150 to make it worth it. And they can factor in convenience.
Another words, it's not a crazy idea to pay a little extra for one these especially if you haven't already been analyzing your energy usage.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#495Am I the only one who thought "well, good for the Nest guys" followed by "too bad, it looked like a good product"?
Pretty much although the exact order was:
1) "holy crap that's a ton of money."
2) "well, good for the Nest guys."
3) "too bad, it looked like a good product."
4) "I wonder why Apple didn't buy them."
GOOG's MSFTian sprawl may be what ends up killing them. This would have been a great fit for Apple ages ago when they could have bought it for cheap, especially given the ex-Apple guys and the Store placement. I guess at these lofty prices they can build better from scratch.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#496well, stick in a fork in Nest then. wonder how bad their financials were when they're already selling. fucking SnapChat refused a FB offer, but Nest just rolls over and dies.
What you meant to say was that nest isn't run by idiots that are stupid enough to turn down a 3 billion dollar offer.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#497Earlier quoted context omitted.
If i'm not mistaken, Google has been dipping it's toes in home automation for some time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_PowerMeter http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/12/17/google-dipping-its-toe-int... To acquire home statistics. Can you imagine the personal data gathering? And the $ value attached to that data? All sweetened with sugar for you to buy the product, connect, and give your data for free. Oh how I would lo…
Yeah, if you're on the cynical side of the whole "Google is co-opted by the government to help track and control the populace" idea, which you have no reason not to be after the NSA leaks, it is absolutely terrifying.
Yeah, you've got to be really careful about cynicism. It's very easy to venture into David Icke territory.
I can't help but feel that this is a funded attempt to subvert power away from OPEC nations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC
If so, could be to help these guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_(oil_companies)
It says in this article:http://ow.ly/syrfO "Google is a widely-known proponent of “green” energy, promoting low-power data centres and clean grid-based power whenever possible."
Excluding "It is good for mankind & the Earth", Why is it important to 'reduce' in western nations, when so many developing/upcoming/industrial/manufacturing/oil nations are laughing at this policy?
Something's up. And it isn't share price. Sorry for my conspiracy feelings -My instinct tells me there will be comments about being overly-conspiratorial (If so, this will suggest my instincts are correct), but I'm more than worried about my children's children and their future.
For some reason in these Austere times, there's a squeeze going on which is being driven by more than you and I are presently being told.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#498Earlier quoted context omitted.
I made the money back heating my house in the bay area in 5 months. The Nest is just much better at using energy efficiently.
That's a savings of $60 on heating per month, for five months. The laws of thermodynamics continue to be enforced regardless of bubble or not, so I think it quite impossible to save more than 10%. So you're averaging $600 or more to heat. Averaging... I live in Wisconsin where I would be hard pressed to spend $300/month during the worst imaginable weather (and this is five months... the worst imaginable weather is ..…
You can get a Nest thermostat for $150 if you get a rebate.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#499Very surprised Apple didn't purchase this. Headed by Tony Fadell, brilliant design, I thought it would fit and be a nice diversification for them. However it will be very interesting to see what Google does with this. If I put away the cynic in me for a moment: the more data Google has on me the better their services are for me. I could imagine the Nest thermostat integrating with Google Now and the location data Goo…
I would've been surprised if Apple had bought them. They strike me as a highly NIH outfit.
Re: Google to Acquire Nest
#500Finally a tech company with enough good sense to realize that if you get a buyout offer that starts will "b" and ends with "illions", you take the money!