Two years ago, Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion, but it might not have gotten the home automation Holy Grail it thought it was buying.
Turns out, Google (GOOGL) is apparently working on its own product to rival Amazon’s (AMZN) increasingly popular Echo device, according to a lengthy report from The Information detailing Nest’s struggles since joining the company. The report doesn’t include any details on the project such as price and features or even timing of its release, however.
But the real kicker is that Nest asked to be involved, but was rebuffed by the Google executive in charge of the project.
The reasons for that are unclear, but the report highlights Nest’s stalled product development and Google’s growing frustrations with the company. Google’s impatience likely pushed it to develop the OnHub Wi-Fi router on its own, though it eventually included some of Nest’s technologies.
With that said, as Coins2Day‘s Stacey Higginbotham has noted, the connected device world itself has suffered a lot of challenges, and not all of Nest’s issues can be attributed to its leader Tony Fadell.
Google’s next developer conference is coming up in May, at which time it could reveal more details about the secret device.