Google's new bet is very clear. They acquired Nest shortly before selling Motorola, and have made no changes to the company since buying it. It seems clear that the Mountain View bet continues on hardware, but not on smartphones. In fact, they may be absolutely right and that telephones are the past.
Companies like Apple and Google cannot afford to be working on what everyone else is working on, they have to be several steps ahead. It is not about entering the war of smartphones, but about knowing what the future is going to be, and starting to manufacture it. If you do not know what Nest is, it will be worth knowing that it is a company whose objective was to turn our house into an intelligent unit. Even washing machines and other appliances can be connected to the Internet, that has been Nest's premise since it was born.
Best of all, they haven't changed the team that makes up Nest one iota, which indicates that Google trusts them. And it is not for less, because it was founded by Tony Fadell, who is the current CEO. For many it may be an unknown name, but he is one of the parents of the iPod, and he is also the one who created that touch wheel that the player carries. He was even one of those who started working on the iPhone, which later revolutionized the world of smartphones. The worst, for all other companies, is that on top of it Fadell seems to be able to combine great talent as an engineer with great ability to run his company. Other Apple engineers have joined Nest, and are now part of the team that works for Google.
Google may no longer be targeting smartphones, but rather the other smart devices that should be the future. Every year there are news in the world of smartphones, which do not add anything too special either. What if all that effort was devoted to other fields? What if we made the furniture in our house smart? If there is a company that can do it, it is clear that it is Google, and the purchase of Nest, together with the sale of Motorola, could have been very decisive.