“A few years ago, Nest was widely viewed as one of Silicon Valley’s brightest stars. Founded by Tony Fadell, a key figure in Apple’s iPod team, Nest aimed to produce a line of user-friendly, connected home appliances,” Timothy B. Lee reports for Vox. “Given Fadell’s Apple background and Nest’s focus on hardware, many people wondered if Nest would become the new Apple.”
“The company’s first product, the Nest Learning Thermostat, got rave reviews,” Lee reports. “Google was so impressed by the company that it paid $3.2 billion for it in 2014.”
“But since then, Nest has struggled,” Lee reports. “It acquired Dropcam in 2014 and rebranded Dropcam’s flagship security camera as the Nest Cam in 2015. Beyond that, Nest hasn’t introduced a single new hardware product, and it looks increasingly unlikely that it can justify that lofty acquisition price. That’s less because of specific problems with the company’s management than because the entire category of internet-connected home devices doesn’t seem that promising.”
“A recent profile by The Information‘s Reed Albergotti paints a picture of a company in chaos, with low morale and a stalled product road map. Albergotti places much of the blame for Nest’s poor performance on Fadell and his abrasive and erratic management style,” Lee reports. “Fadell’s critics say that he is both too prone to micromanaging subordinates and too prone to changing his mind. As a result, Nest employees seem to be stuck in an endless cycle of product revisions, causing new releases to be delayed.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in January 2014:
A lot has been made of Google getting former Apple employees with their wild overpayment for Nest Labs. However, if Apple really wanted and valued these employees, they’d still be at Apple.
A Nest is the last thermostat or smoke alarm you want. You want quality thermostats and smoke alarms.
SEE ALSO:
Nest employees: Tony Fadell-led company is a poorly managed, fear-driven machine – February 16, 2016
Google engineer trashes Tony Fadell’s precious Nest smoke alarm – February 19, 2015
With HomeKit and Honeywell’s Lyric, a Nest acquisition by Apple would have been foolish – June 18, 2014
Will Apple’s Internet of Things vision hurt a beautiful idea? With HomeKit, Apple promises easy home automation – June 6, 2014
Smart thermostat war heats up as Apple-partner Honeywell takes aim at Google’s Nest – June 13, 2014
Honeywell takes dead aim at Google’s Nest with new iPhone-compatible Lyric smart thermostat – June 10, 2014
Dead to me: Apple’s Schiller ‘unfollows’ Tony Fadell and Nest after Google acquisition – January 18, 2014
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “boecherer” for the heads up.]
The Google black hole, where promising concepts go to get F-up and wither to oblivion.
Yes, Google has one success..it’s search engine and the ad revenue that pulls in…and that’s pretty much about it. Now admittedly that’s a nice one trick pony to ride…but let’s face it…when Google tries to do anything else, especially hardware related, they fail miserably.
If they ever do produce a car, my bet is that it fails too.
Empty(promise) Nest….
Had one but pulled it out when Google bought it.
This is what you get when you elevate an average guy to godlike proportions. He inevitably fails. It is some very tasty schadenfreude.
Tony Fadell, just another Steve Jobs neverbe. Neverbe in a million years. Rock on, Alphabet. Ha, ha, ha….
I’m still using my Nest thermostats but am deeply uncomfortable with the fact that they are owned by Google the personal data vacuum. I’ve been hoping that a new “star” product deeply tied to HomeKit would pop up…but so far, I guess I haven’t been impressed enough to pull the trigger on replacements. HomeKit doesn’t seem to have attracted much attention in the industry it seems.
Is Echobee the best out there? Are there other good competitors to Nest that might not be getting much attention?
I’m pretty happy with my ecobee. I had a nest and a lynx but they didn’t work. Ecobee works great. But I suspect the biggest factor was the installer ecobee recommended who realized I needed an addition power wire.
I think after the Snowden leaks, it seems obvious, the last thing you want in the home is a camera and microphone controlled by a company that reads your email and tracks your searches, and shares them with who knows else. It’s an invitation to being the guardian angel no one wanted.
Nest, before Google bought then, was doing quite well.
Speaking of Fadell, it sounds like he’s a bit ADD and has other diagnosable mental conditions that explain the described behavior. I worked under those conditions. If you are project based and your success depends on complete sound production, then this is a nightmare situation. If you are an hourly employee, it’s great, you do a little bit of what you are asked, but don’t follow through because you know that in the next day or two it will be forgotten and something else will come up and also will be forgotten.
I’ve owned a Nest since they first came out and I still love it. It has the beauty of an Apple product. After the were bought up by Google, I refrained from buying the smoke alarm. Which I’m glad I did. Like most people who read this site, I think Google is bad news and Tony Fadell might be trying to be another Steve Jobs, but there was only one of those. I just wish other companies could make products to rival Apple products like the Nest Thermostat did, but they aren’t.
Nest isn’t bust. He sold for $3.2 billion for revenue of $55 million. He is a genius. Google is the bust. They just are not a hardware company but they achieved what they wanted. The millions of people with Nest are providing google with all kinds of useful info hourly. The dollars were never about the hardware. It is data from the users. It is priceless.
Glad Gaggle is not devouring my home temperature settings and learning more about me and my family to sell to who knows what!
What other alternatives to NEST are there currently?
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/16/6154675/smart-thermostat-maker-ecobee-pokes-nest-with-a-striking-redesign
Of course, if Nest really WERE a bust….as in shape…I might prefer to fiddle with it more than some others! 😉
Honeywell makes a very good thermostat and when teamed up with their RedLink system is really nice. Info from my furnace and thermostat delivered to my iPhone and iPad.
Early adopters pay the price.
I learned the hard way with a “connected” Honeywell alarm system 30 years ago. The number of ‘issues’ with that system were so many I lost track. I disconnected it after fire, ambulance and police all arrived during dinner one evening.
I’ll let the iOT thing settle out for a decade before I seriously look at it. Even then, I have to see BIG gains for a small amount of $ outlay, or I won’t even consider it.
I sympathize with the employees. The place where I work is run by a guy who won’t listen to the experts, who micromanages (particularly in areas where he is not the expert) and as a result any attempt to address our goals is shot down, there is an endless series of utterly stupid decisions and, as the guy in charge is the owner and is not accountable for anything, there is nothing that can be done but endure the idiocy. The real ship of fools aspect is that other than myself and a handful of others, everybody thinks that this is the way things are supposed to be. It is institutionalized madness. I’m just hanging onto the edge of the carousel looking for the right spot to jump.
Tony Fadell is obviously a smart guy with some great accomplishments. But he’s one more person who succeeded at Apple, but never realized that it wasn’t just him but the whole Apple team along with the Apple culture and brand that made him successful. So he’s one more Apple big shot who goes somewhere else and fails.
It would be like a great sports player, who has had great success with one team full of talent, deciding he could go it alone and joining an upstart team full of losers. Imagine if Tom Brady for instance, let the Patriots and went to play for, say, Cleveland. Do you think he’d have nearly the success? No way…no how. It’s not just Tom, its the coach and the system and the players he surrounds Tom with. That’s why Brady will never leave the Patriots. And that’s why those who are super successful at Apple should think twice before leaving. They may never have the type of team around them ever again to allow them the same level of success.
The Nest thermostat was an awesome product until Google got their hands on it. I have a brand new second generation Nest thermostat that hasn’t been opened because I got it right before Google took over. I am not comfortable with Google knowing when I’m home, when I’m not, where I live and what my habits are.
I’m ashamed to admit that I spent a small fortune putting Nest products all over 2 homes because I thought having a product made by an ex-Apple guy would be great. NOT. A month later Google bought them, the firmware downloads started rolling out weekly, the problems multiplied. I just spend $500 to have the systems rewired by a pro (which Nest paid for) and they still don’t work right.
Stick with HomeKit products or wait for them to come out. Nest is a real PITA
Tom
Feeling underappreciated and having lost his mojo. I hear Tony Fidel signed on to play Dr. Evil in Austin Powers VI. It’s quite brilliant actually, they won’t even need make up as he fits the part perfectly. Coming to a theater near you. Mu hahaha… Mu hahaha…
My nest works great and works with hue very well. My themostat was free through my power company. So its a great deal better than what was in the house before. If apple had bought nest you guys would be praising it.
The owner of a small company that mounts flat screen TVs, installs thermostats, etc., told me not to get a Nest. He recommended the Honeywell Lyric, which he said was superior, including “fine tune,” which Honeywell explains as, “Fine Tune takes into account the indoor temperature, indoor humidity and outdoor weather conditions to ensure that your home will feel like your desired temperature.” I bought it and installed it (very easy generally, but when I encountered an issue I called the support number and got immediate access to a support tech, who told me what to do). I love the Lyric, and more important, my wife does because she noticed that the room temps are more comfortable and consistent. Maybe the Nest does some of this too, but I’m not buying any Google hardware.