The smart home wars continue, with Google making the latest move.
Amazon and Google are in a perpetual battle to be Master of the Smart Home. Many would say that Amazon has the upper hand, as it was first-to-market with the now commercially accepted and successful digital smart home speaker, and it just made a large acquisition of video doorbell company Ring.
Google, for its part, is not taking the competition lightly, however, and it serving up a nice response to Amazon most recent move.
For years, Google has actually owned the smart home device brand Nest but it kept it as a separate operating company. They recently absorbed Nest back into the Alphabet infrastructure in a move that is a clear sign that they are ready to integrate Nest products into the Google Home speaker.
This is a smart move, since Nest makes a host of smart home products including the two newest to hit the market: a smart video doorbell, of course, and a smart lock. This means that Google now owns a digital smart home speaker, a video doorbell, and a smart lock. There is no reason that this triple threat shouldn’t shake Amazon a little.
Additionally, Nest makes an already-popular line of home thermostats as well as home security camera systems. This is a full line of smart home automation and security products, all under the same business roof, and now fully integrated into the Google Home framework. It has never been easier to set up and control a smart home.
Amazon is obviously working toward the same goal, but this time, Google beat them there. While the Amazon line of smart home speakers is very open and able to connect with a variety of smart home products from other lines, that just isn’t the same has offering a full line of your own products. Looking at the Google/Nest integration makes Amazon’s current offering look disjointed. Ring does make security cameras as well, but they don’t make smart locks or thermostats.
The Nest Hello video doorbell costs $229, and includes all the standard features of a smart doorbell. It can detect motion at your door, allow you to activate two-way communication, and even allow you leave an outgoing message for anyone that comes to your door. The Ring line does have more models available – four right now – that start at $180 and go up to $500. Nest is definitely late to the game, and only has one model available that could be out of budget for many people, but I have no doubt that they will release more models soon.
Nest has beat Ring to the smart lock game, though, and that’s a big deal. The Nest Yale lock is key-free and works with an app. It gives you remote access and lets you create passwords for friends and family. It can easily integrate into the Nest security system ecosystem, as well as the Google Home ecosystem.
Who do you think is winning the smart home war: Amazon or Google? No, Apple is not included and doesn’t deserve to be…yet. But I’m watching them to see what they do next.
For more on our thoughts of Amazon’s recent acquirement of Ring, be sure to read 4 Reasons it Makes Sense for Amazon to Buy Ring.
