From the acquisition that is the snow hidden Dropcam tabs, a glimpse of smart home

This May, Dropcam introduced hardware new Dropcam Tabs, wants to expand monitoring range and reduce alarm errors, is expected this summer shipments. But four months later, the product has been slow to move. When I opened the Dropcam official website, but found Dropcam tabs has been off the shelf.

Dropcam Tabs is a new product released to enhance Dropcam's use of functions and monitoring, a sensor as large as a U disk that can be posted in doors, windows and other rooms to monitor areas that cannot be covered by Dropcam lenses. With this combination, Dropcam hopes that they will provide more accurate and useful security monitoring services. Dropcam Tabs is connected by Bluetooth and Dropcam, built with an accelerometer and magnetometer, and a pair of button batteries that can be used for two years, with Black-and-white options for $29.

In fact, on the August 1 of this year, Dropcam officially cancelled Dropcam tabs's pre-sale orders. The official explanation is: to develop a better fit for nest and Dropcam products. About Dropacam abandoned tabs This thing, I also and Campoint founder Wang Xiangheng chat.

The establishment of the smart home product line of Google based on Nest

Tabs is designed with Dropcam as the core, like a new eye for Dropcam. Google-nest's product line is nest as the core design, acquisition Dropcam also just want to turn the latter into nest eyes. Eyes don't need eyes anymore. Tabs cancellation, also just explains a nest for the center of the Google smart home product line of the establishment, Dropcam after the development of Nest for the growth and service.

Dropcam the future will not have Tabs, but Nest also very likely to have their own Tabs, perhaps "Nest Tabs" is already planning or even volume production.

In other words, this is why the original acquisition of Nest is Google, and the acquisition of Dropcam is nest.

A new platform based on thread protocol

Why not turn Dropcam Tabs directly into a "Nest Tabs"? Here is the technical aspects of the cause of the Nest is the ZigBee, and tabs is based on Bluetooth, and the Google-nest product interconnection will be more difficult.

The deeper reason, perhaps, is that Google-nest wants to do the smart home system, which is based on the WiFi + Thread protocol. Thread is this July Samsung, Nest, ARM teamed up to launch a new ZigBee communication protocol, T original ZigBee devices only need to update the software can be compatible with Thread. Overall, Thread is likely to be like Apple's HomeKit, Qualcomm's Open source framework AllJoyn, a top-level architecture that works at the top level.

If the future of smart home will have a war, apple by virtue of HomeKit has been the next city, this August, Samsung has confirmed 200 million U.S. dollars to buy SmartThings. Google is also active: In addition to Dropcam, Google has also worked with Mercedes-Benz, Wyeth and Urawa LiFx to integrate the products of these companies with Nest; recently Google launched the physical Web project to develop a common web Standards so that any device (not just Google's device) can be used to provide interaction and a set of services.

If Google has such a large platform ambitions, a tabs based on ZigBee protocol is not only in line with the Google-nest strategy, but also facilitate the future of google-nest products interconnection, why not? The future of Google-nest's smart home system is likely to be: at the bottom, thread is responsible for the interconnection of the products within the system, the external network and other products via WiFi, and the physical web for unified interaction and service at the interactive level.

Google-nest where do you go next?

Now the Nest is more like Google-nest intelligent Home system of the torso, Dropcam has become the eyes. And what are the limbs of the torso next? As a bystander, it's hard to say.

To achieve a smart home of the closed loop, Nest now do is the body of smart home, nest+ LiFx do is home energe (household energy Saving), Dropcam do is home security (Family Safety), then the next may be the house Entertainment (Home Entertainment).

The concept of living room entertainment has been mentioned for a long time, in addition to Android Tv,google in this area is still lack of competitive products. The entertainment side covers a lot of products, but it boils down to simple: the control side, display end, connecting end. Connection side Google already has the thread protocol, the display has an Android TV, Chromebook and Chrome browser, with mobile phones, tablets. And at these three ends, there is clearly room for optimization, such as a hand ring that can get through Google Fit and Google-nest smart home system, which may be possible.