Cre8iveconcept

Why Nest didn’t build Google’s competitor to the Amazon Echo What happened to the consumer hardware arm of Google? It’s complicated. George Frey / Getty When Google unveiled a new smart device for the home in May, many commentators online asked the same question: Why wasn’t Nest, Google’s smart-home company, unveiling it? Fair question. Acquired in 2014 for $3.2 billion, Nest brought CEO Tony Fadell, a former Apple exec who had created the iPod, and a band of Apple designers and engineers to Google. At the time, several publications and pundits said that Nest was bringing to Google not just its devices, but Apple’s sensibility and execution — a blueprint to be the internet giant’s de facto consumer hardware arm. Mark Bergen of recode.net spoke to several people close to the deal, and it seems that was never the explicit strategy of Google’s leaders. More importantly, its latest hardware, Google Home — a voice-controlled speaker a...

Elizabeth Warren says Apple, Amazon and Google are trying to ‘lock out’ the competition “The opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors.” Win McNamee / Getty Google, Apple and Amazon aren’t just giant tech companies. They’re giant tech companies that use their size to “snuff out competition.” That’s the charge levied by Elizabeth Warren in a speech the Massachusetts senator delivered today in Washington. Warren singled out three of tech’s biggest players in a speech about the perils of “consolidation and concentration” throughout the economy. It comes the day after Hillary Clinton, Warren’s recent stage-mate, laid out a “technology agenda” that seemed designed to please Silicon Valley. Warren had different beefs with Google, Apple and Amazon, but the common thread was that she accused each one of using its powerful platform to “lock out smaller guys and newer guys,” including some that compete with ...