The past few days have been confusing and frustrating for home automation enthusiasts that made investments in Nest products. How did we get here?This week we take a look at Nest.
Turn off the lights when you leave...
If you are subscribed to this newsletter there is a good chance you have owned or still own Nest products. The smart home has been inspired by cartoons and 80s era commercials. The smart home has been enshrined in the ubiquitous X10 web page banner advertisements of the late DotCom era.
Today the way the market moves often seems more like the plot of a cartoon or a TV commercial that is both familiar if not slightly annoying to see over and over again.
How did we get here?
Nest actually wasnβt the first WiFi enabled smart thermostat. Even a first mover advantage wasnβt enough to catapult early pioneer startups into sudden success.
By 2010, seeming everything that could be added to a WiFi network was becoming what would become the Internet of Things or more accurately the Internet of Things That Would Likely Change or Deprecate in the Future. Then in 2011, everything changed as the team behind the iPhone set out to transform the thing we never knew we needed⦠a cloud connected thing to control the most boring things in our home from our smart phones.
By the year 2019, itβs almost reaching the level of trope to consider any innovative startup hardware as being subject to these inevitable chapters:
Startup Company launches amazing Product
Passionate customer flock to Product
Record breaking sales for Product
Vibrant API or developer ecosystem emerges for Product
Acquisition of Startup Company by BIG Company
BIG Company says Startup Company / Product will not change (much)
Older customers complain about minor changes to Product
BIG Company shuffles around Startup Company
WHILE $SALES_YEAR > $SALES_LAST_YEAR { GOTO 6 }
BIG Company dissolves Startup Company with major Product changes
The Internet of Malevolent Appliances
Itβs more likely that bigger companies will continue to appear as a safe bet due to marketing. The reality will be that swapping home automation technology will be fractured until a universal standard is mandated. The mandate will be the response in the wake of reasons for legislation and regulation by governments post Internet of Things going very very wrong.
Home automation is fun if you have income to burn that you donβt see as an investment that lasts longer than a few years. If you plan a longer time then make sure the operating manual is easy to find and easy to apply for those that follow behind.
A reminder that all that we set in motion during the living years will be a reminder or a puzzle for those we leave behind β document, document, and then document again.
