This article is more than 1 year old

Nest developers become Oompa-Loompas in Google shake-up

Alphabet soups up Android with more IoT

Another month, another Alphabet attempt to restructure its Internet of Things businesses into something coherent and successful.

It's probably been on the cards ever since Nest CEO Tony Fadell quit in June this year: Alphabet has assimilated the thermostat-and-smoke-detector platform team into Google.

The news comes courtesy of Fortune, which reckons the developers, who had hitherto enjoyed the relative autonomy of being off to one side, will be under the care of Android senior veep Hiroshi Lockheimer.

Lockheimer is going to be tasked with creating a unified Internet of Things platform. The busy bee is also in charge of folding Chrome OS into Android.

The US$3.2 billion acquisition hasn't been a smooth integration. Before Fadell's departure, Nest was criticised for delivering up just two product iterations and no new products since the company got Googled.

He was also responsible for the decision, in April, to turn the products of 2014 acquisition Revolv into paperweights and Oompa-Loompa-fying Revolv's engineers.

It's a fair bet that inside The Chocolate Factory, the developers will learn to stop worrying and love Android, and The Register would imagine Nest will become a late adopter of Google's Brillo Internet of Things standards.

Third parties who've been trying to unpick Nest's proprietary Weave protocol will likewise be looking through the Brillo APIs. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like