Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz announced this week that he's leaving his post at the helm of the Google-owned smart home company and moving into an advisory role. This is a move in the right direction for Nest customers and the smart-home space in general.
The decision comes only five months after Nest formally rejoined Google after spending three years as an independent subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company. The reorganization has tremendous implications for Google's future, and it means the Nest team will work more closely with Google's hardware group, potentially leading to better integrations with other products from the tech giant.
With Fawaz out, Rishi Chandra, vice president of product management and general manager of home products at Google, will now be overseeing the team at Nest. CNET first reported on the departure, noting that employees at Nest were unhappy with Fawaz's leadership and pushed for his exit. Nest and Google deny these claims.
SEE ALSO:Your smart home just got a little smarter with this AC controllerIn a statement emailed to Mashable, Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of hardware at Google, said:
“We are accelerating the merger of our Home and Nest teams to provide our users and businesses with even better services under the leadership of Rishi Chandra.
Marwan Fawaz is a strong CEO with a track record of operational excellence who led the integration planning efforts and was responsible for determining our organizational strategy.
Marwan has done a remarkable job driving revenue growth, improving product quality, expanding the product portfolio and user satisfaction at Nest.
Nest’s employee retention and satisfaction has significantly improved over his time with the team.
Unsourced comments suggesting otherwise are wrong. I am pleased to report that he will stay with us as an executive advisor for our hardware business, for Alphabet companies, and future strategic investments."
The most significant takeaway here is that Nest is back under Google. When Alphabet was the parent company, Nest became its own independent entity and lost the direct access to Google and its hardware division, which has grown considerably in importance to the company as products like the Pixel phone, Home smart speaker, and Chromecast streaming dongle have matured into full product lines. Getting direct access to those teams puts the smart appliance company in a better position for success.
It’s a trend that could be seen at Google’s fall hardware launch last year when Nest got its very own spot on the stage. Then in February, the Nest team was moved back under Google, which allows for the team to work directly with the Home team.
Credit: NESTFor customers, Nest will look exactly the same as before, continuing to release its own branded products. Currently, the lineup includes thermostats, cameras, smoke detectors, a smart lock, a doorbell, and a security system. Going forward, however, you can bet improved integrations with Google devices will be in the works.
Some of those integrations already exist -- for instance, you can view Nest Cam footage on a Chromecast and control your Nest Thermostat from Google Home. In the future, the IQ Cam could detect motion and automatically sound an alarm, send you push alerts, and call emergency services.
These deeper integrations were part of the whole promise of Nest moving back into Google, and they're no doubt something that's been worked on a lot. However, by having Nest report directly to Google veteran Rishi Chandra, general manager of home products, it will be even tighter. The best part for Nest, though, is better access to Google's AI backbone: The company now has much closer access, including Google's R&D teams, to enhance the experience.
This many shuffles for one company in a short period is not ideal, but Nest is on a better track now with more access to Google than ever before.
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