14 ms·

Google is bleeding cash trying to take on Amazon in the smart home

49 points by PuffinBlue 8y ago

toasterlovin 8y ago
The problem wth home automation is that it’s all about solving problems which are already solved. And the level of complexity required to achieve the small delta of improvement just doesn’t make sense for most people.
- jacksmith21006 8y ago
  Do not agree. We have several Google Homes now and they get used all day.
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    What I’m saying is that to experience the improvement of being able to turn on your lights by talking to your Google Home vs. simply walking over to the light switch and toggling it’s position, you had to buy a whole bunch of smart light bulbs, plus the Google Home devices. So, there is a large expenditure of money and time just to get everything installed. But also, now, being able to turn your lights on by speaking out loud depends on an incredibly complex stack of technologies. There are two entire operating systems, networking stacks, etc. that all have to work in order for you to continue accruing this benefit. That might be worth it to you, but it seems like chasing extremely marginal returns to me.
freedomben 8y ago
I think Google knows that this is the race for the new platform. It's what happened with Microsoft in PCs, and Apple in smart phones. If this market is similar to those aforementioned, once it is saturated there will be high brand loyalty and very few switch-overs. It takes a long time to win market share once people have adopted a platform. It's worth bleeding heavily right now to lock up market share well into the future. My only sadness is that because of the nature of the tech involved, it seems like only a race between the big dawgs. Us small guys may be able to ride the wave with apps, similar to early mobile apps, but the proliferation of walled gardens and proprietary all-the-things will be unfortunate.
- skellera 8y ago
  I believe it’s only going to be a holdover until the first company to crack AR (always on, full vision) which will completely change the world. AR will mix voice but to become the walled garden of a person’s entire world, literally everything they see, is going to be so insanely powerful.
  - candiodari 8y ago
    I think AR display tech is already where it needs to be for a breakthrough. Problem is input, not output. We need a high bandwidth input device, and voice is never going to be that.
- zamalek 8y ago
  Microsoft also did it with the XBox. Comparatively, they were hemorrhaging money. It worked. I still maintain that Google has a better product (having superior voice recognition) and that this race is far from over.
smt88 8y ago
I'm curious how the products are doing outside of reviewers' contrived trials. I have a house full of Nest and Google Home, and it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when it makes simple mistakes (or just doesn't work) 90% of the time. It really feels like a product that hasn't been dogfooded at all...
elvirs 8y ago
is there really a big market thought for this? Alexa devices are at least 2 years old. How many real people do you know that really use alexa to control their livingroom? When I saw my boss repeatedly saying 'alexa turn the volume down' it made him look stupid, he could just grab the remote and turn it down. I understand it could be useful in kitchen if your hands are covered in food and you need basic things like set timer, change Pandora station or play a youtube recepy for whatever but using it to control the livingroom, for video calling etc. Sounds more like a gimmick that Siri became after Microsoft spent so much resources building Cortana. We have phones, tablets, smart tv and smart infotainment systems in our cars, we don't need another device to do things that we can get done through all of our other devices. May be I am wrong, bur just don't see it.
- JohnnyConatus 8y ago
  Smart lights are the killer app for Alexa. There's no going back once you have it. And the only thing keeping most people from getting smart lights is the cost which will fall.
  - ericd 8y ago
    Do smart lights rely on a functioning internet connection?
    - corrigible 8y ago
      I've only "deployed" a Philips Hue setup at home, but no, just internal WiFi is enough.
      - na85 8y ago
        So you need to buy DRM lightbulbs?
        corrigible 8y ago
        I'm not sure, I got my "starter set" as a gift.
imchillyb 8y ago
> Google parent Alphabet sees shares pop after earnings beat: Adjusted EPS: $9.57 per share vs. $8.33 per share expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate Revenue: $27.77 billion vs. $27.2 billion expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate Anita Balakrishnan | @MsABalakrishnan Published 3:25 PM ET Thu, 26 Oct 2017 Updated 7:29 PM ET Thu, 26 Oct 2017 - CNBC --- Google is bleeding money in the same way I bleed when I take my glucose reading, by pricking the tip of my finger. Drip. Drip.
fipple 8y ago
It’s a smart move. We gave away our Alexa’s once we tried Google,
petre 8y ago
If these devices don't clean my home, take out the trash, mow the lawn or clean my dog's poo then they're quite useless to me. Why pay for having Amazon or Google bugs in your home?
- elvirs 8y ago
  if you have hardwood floors and not a messy house I would strongly recommend a robot vacuum. I leave that thing on few times a week when leaving the house and every time it manages to collect a handful of dust, mostly speck from cloth
  - smt88 8y ago
    I was about to do this and then heard about the paperclip disasters that have ruined floors. Do you hVe a way to mitigate that or have nee vacuums gotten better at detecting that they have something stuck in them?
    - elvirs 8y ago
      Im have the $200 one from amazon. it has no cameras or wifi, it just randomly roams around the rooms or you can set it to 'curb' mode and it will be sweeping along the walls. I don't use a lot of paperclips so I would not know but you can test it by feeding it a bunch of paperclips and if it does go on to scratch floors then just return it, I guess.
      - smt88 8y ago
        Paperclips was a generalization. It could happen with any metal object left on the ground. > if it does go on to scratch floors then just return it, I guess It would be great if it were that simple, but scratching the floors would cost $1,500+ of damage and force me to leave my house for at least two days. Either the robot has to be smart enough to avoid dragging objects around with it, or I can't use it. That's why I asked if maybe yours was a newer model that was smart about it.
  - petre 8y ago
eitally 8y ago
This is the stupidest article. The premise is predicated on a wild, baseless extrapolation that because Nest isn't cashflow positive, then surely the - totally unrelated and until this quarter separately managed - other hardware orgs must also be. It also completely ignores the internal org structure differentiating between hardware, software & distribution/partnerships/support, which vary wildly based on whether it's consumer hardware (like Nest), media (Google Play Music/Movies/YT), computing devices (ChromeOS) or mobile (Android/Pixel/accessories), or non-Nest Home HW (Google Home/Mini/Max).
sunstone 8y ago
Google just reported record revenues up 26% from last year's quarter and almost double last year's net income at $9bn. Not to worry, it has plenty of cash to bleed and it increases every hour of every day.
- HenryBemis 8y ago
  [1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/alphabet-earnings-q2-2017.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/alphabet-earnings-q2-2017.ht... But I have to say, "Of course, Google has the money to spend." "Bleeding cash" is hardly what Google/Alphabet is doing. At worse, this for Google/Alphabet is the $10 bill that discovered in a jacket they haven't put on since last spring. Or to state this properly, Alphabet's liquidity/viability is not in danger by this effort :)
jacksmith21006 8y ago
Google reported $9b net income yesterday so not to sure this article is very accurate. Plus https://www.voicebot.ai/2018/04/16/smart-speaker-adoption-in-canada-surges-to-8-google-home-has-double-the-market-share-of-amazon-echo/ https://www.voicebot.ai/2018/04/16/smart-speaker-adoption-in... Smart Speaker Adoption in Canada Surges to 8%, Google Home ...
1024core 8y ago
Amazon was "bleeding" cash for the first 2 decades of its existence, and nobody complained.
ttam 8y ago
Will this be Google+ v2?

49 points by PuffinBlue 8y ago

The problem wth home automation is that it’s all about solving problems which are already solved. And the level of complexity required to achieve the small delta of improvement just doesn’t make sense for most people.

jacksmith21006 8y ago
Do not agree. We have several Google Homes now and they get used all day.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  What I’m saying is that to experience the improvement of being able to turn on your lights by talking to your Google Home vs. simply walking over to the light switch and toggling it’s position, you had to buy a whole bunch of smart light bulbs, plus the Google Home devices. So, there is a large expenditure of money and time just to get everything installed. But also, now, being able to turn your lights on by speaking out loud depends on an incredibly complex stack of technologies. There are two entire operating systems, networking stacks, etc. that all have to work in order for you to continue accruing this benefit. That might be worth it to you, but it seems like chasing extremely marginal returns to me.

freedomben 8y ago

I think Google knows that this is the race for the new platform. It's what happened with Microsoft in PCs, and Apple in smart phones. If this market is similar to those aforementioned, once it is saturated there will be high brand loyalty and very few switch-overs. It takes a long time to win market share once people have adopted a platform. It's worth bleeding heavily right now to lock up market share well into the future. My only sadness is that because of the nature of the tech involved, it seems like only a race between the big dawgs. Us small guys may be able to ride the wave with apps, similar to early mobile apps, but the proliferation of walled gardens and proprietary all-the-things will be unfortunate.

skellera 8y ago
I believe it’s only going to be a holdover until the first company to crack AR (always on, full vision) which will completely change the world. AR will mix voice but to become the walled garden of a person’s entire world, literally everything they see, is going to be so insanely powerful.
- candiodari 8y ago
  I think AR display tech is already where it needs to be for a breakthrough. Problem is input, not output. We need a high bandwidth input device, and voice is never going to be that.
zamalek 8y ago
Microsoft also did it with the XBox. Comparatively, they were hemorrhaging money. It worked. I still maintain that Google has a better product (having superior voice recognition) and that this race is far from over.

smt88 8y ago

I'm curious how the products are doing outside of reviewers' contrived trials. I have a house full of Nest and Google Home, and it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry when it makes simple mistakes (or just doesn't work) 90% of the time. It really feels like a product that hasn't been dogfooded at all...

elvirs 8y ago

is there really a big market thought for this? Alexa devices are at least 2 years old. How many real people do you know that really use alexa to control their livingroom? When I saw my boss repeatedly saying 'alexa turn the volume down' it made him look stupid, he could just grab the remote and turn it down. I understand it could be useful in kitchen if your hands are covered in food and you need basic things like set timer, change Pandora station or play a youtube recepy for whatever but using it to control the livingroom, for video calling etc. Sounds more like a gimmick that Siri became after Microsoft spent so much resources building Cortana. We have phones, tablets, smart tv and smart infotainment systems in our cars, we don't need another device to do things that we can get done through all of our other devices. May be I am wrong, bur just don't see it.

JohnnyConatus 8y ago
Smart lights are the killer app for Alexa. There's no going back once you have it. And the only thing keeping most people from getting smart lights is the cost which will fall.
- ericd 8y ago
  Do smart lights rely on a functioning internet connection?
  - corrigible 8y ago
    I've only "deployed" a Philips Hue setup at home, but no, just internal WiFi is enough.
    - na85 8y ago
      So you need to buy DRM lightbulbs?
      - corrigible 8y ago
        I'm not sure, I got my "starter set" as a gift.

imchillyb 8y ago

> Google parent Alphabet sees shares pop after earnings beat: Adjusted EPS: $9.57 per share vs. $8.33 per share expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate Revenue: $27.77 billion vs. $27.2 billion expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate Anita Balakrishnan | @MsABalakrishnan Published 3:25 PM ET Thu, 26 Oct 2017 Updated 7:29 PM ET Thu, 26 Oct 2017 - CNBC --- Google is bleeding money in the same way I bleed when I take my glucose reading, by pricking the tip of my finger. Drip. Drip.

fipple 8y ago

It’s a smart move. We gave away our Alexa’s once we tried Google,

petre 8y ago

If these devices don't clean my home, take out the trash, mow the lawn or clean my dog's poo then they're quite useless to me. Why pay for having Amazon or Google bugs in your home?

elvirs 8y ago
if you have hardwood floors and not a messy house I would strongly recommend a robot vacuum. I leave that thing on few times a week when leaving the house and every time it manages to collect a handful of dust, mostly speck from cloth
- smt88 8y ago
  I was about to do this and then heard about the paperclip disasters that have ruined floors. Do you hVe a way to mitigate that or have nee vacuums gotten better at detecting that they have something stuck in them?
  - elvirs 8y ago
    Im have the $200 one from amazon. it has no cameras or wifi, it just randomly roams around the rooms or you can set it to 'curb' mode and it will be sweeping along the walls. I don't use a lot of paperclips so I would not know but you can test it by feeding it a bunch of paperclips and if it does go on to scratch floors then just return it, I guess.
    - smt88 8y ago
      Paperclips was a generalization. It could happen with any metal object left on the ground. > if it does go on to scratch floors then just return it, I guess It would be great if it were that simple, but scratching the floors would cost $1,500+ of damage and force me to leave my house for at least two days. Either the robot has to be smart enough to avoid dragging objects around with it, or I can't use it. That's why I asked if maybe yours was a newer model that was smart about it.
- petre 8y ago

eitally 8y ago

This is the stupidest article. The premise is predicated on a wild, baseless extrapolation that because Nest isn't cashflow positive, then surely the - totally unrelated and until this quarter separately managed - other hardware orgs must also be. It also completely ignores the internal org structure differentiating between hardware, software & distribution/partnerships/support, which vary wildly based on whether it's consumer hardware (like Nest), media (Google Play Music/Movies/YT), computing devices (ChromeOS) or mobile (Android/Pixel/accessories), or non-Nest Home HW (Google Home/Mini/Max).

sunstone 8y ago

Google just reported record revenues up 26% from last year's quarter and almost double last year's net income at $9bn. Not to worry, it has plenty of cash to bleed and it increases every hour of every day.

HenryBemis 8y ago
[1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/alphabet-earnings-q2-2017.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/alphabet-earnings-q2-2017.ht... But I have to say, "Of course, Google has the money to spend." "Bleeding cash" is hardly what Google/Alphabet is doing. At worse, this for Google/Alphabet is the $10 bill that discovered in a jacket they haven't put on since last spring. Or to state this properly, Alphabet's liquidity/viability is not in danger by this effort :)

jacksmith21006 8y ago

Google reported $9b net income yesterday so not to sure this article is very accurate. Plus https://www.voicebot.ai/2018/04/16/smart-speaker-adoption-in-canada-surges-to-8-google-home-has-double-the-market-share-of-amazon-echo/ https://www.voicebot.ai/2018/04/16/smart-speaker-adoption-in... Smart Speaker Adoption in Canada Surges to 8%, Google Home ...

1024core 8y ago

Amazon was "bleeding" cash for the first 2 decades of its existence, and nobody complained.

ttam 8y ago

Will this be Google+ v2?