Sounding a bit like his perfectionist late boss and iPod-designing collaborator Steve Jobs, the head of Google’s Nest division suggested to the BBC that he was handed control over design of a new Google Glass because he volunteered to fix it.
Tony Fadell, co-founder of connected thermostat maker Nest, joined Google when the tech giant bought his company for $3.2 billion last year. Along with designing Internet-connected thermostats, smoke detectors and home security cameras, he also began working on Glass, the wearable headset, when Google canceled its failed public experiment in January and moved it into the Nest division for more internal research and design.
Fadell told the BBC in a wide-ranging video interview posted Friday that the emerging wearable market is as exciting as the PC innovation happening in the 1980s.
“That’s why I decided to take on this responsibility,” he said. “I’m very bullish. It wasn’t handed to me (by someone saying), ‘Tony, clean it up.’ I offered and said this is important. I remember what it was like when we did the iPod, the iPhone. I think this can be that important, but it’s going to take time.”
Fadell also reiterated his distaste for the buzzwords that have come to be associated with ventures such as Nest. The term “Internet of Things” is a disservice to Nest’s products, he said.
He also dislikes “smart home,” a term used for so many decades that it represents broken promises for futuristic living. He prefers “thoughtful home.”
Above: Tony Fadell, head of Google’s Nest, announced new products during a press conference at Terra Gallery in San Francisco on June 17. (John Green/Bay Area News Group)
