Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) acquired Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in January. Nest Labs manufactures and sells smoke alarms and thermostats for home applications. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) intended to integrate the apps for connected home market with the Nest Labs ‘conscious home’ project. Nest Labs was working on this project for quite some time and is expected to have a huge potential in the future. VP and Founder of Nest Labs, Matt Rogers talked on CNBC about the ‘conscious home’ and its implications.
“[…] We are looking at where the home should be in 10 years. We don’t want home automation; we just want simpler remote control for a better simpler life. So what Nest is building is, we call it ‘conscious home’, where the home starts to take care of you, as opposed to you having to take care of your home,” Rogers said.
Home starting to take care of the people would mean a smarter home with better ‘intelligence’. But Rogers pointed out the difference between smart home and ‘conscious home’. He said that the term smart home is a bit too technical. He mentioned that with ‘conscious home’, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Nest is trying to build a warm and friendly home.
Rogers pointed out that Nest was the first company to manufacture a learning thermostat, which could learn and anticipate likes and dislikes of the people in home. He added that these thermostats save energy in addition to keeping people comfortable. He mentioned that Nest was working on this technology for quite some time and is currently targeting markets like US, Canada and Europe for their products.
Rogers thinks that the US market is more comfort driven, whereas European market is more inclined towards energy cost and savings. He mentioned that their products are available in UK with a price tag of 179 pounds ($292) for a thermostat and 89 pounds ($145) for a smoke alarm. He added that the thermostat product might seem costly, but the initial cost breaks even in 12 – 18 months through energy savings. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Nest could help them grow in the US and European market with these new products as is satisfies both the market requirements.
Among the investors in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is Duquesne Capital, managed by Stanley Druckenmiller. Duquesne capital hold around 260 thousand of the company shares.
Disclosure: None
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