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NewsPoster · Dec 20, 2012, 01:23 PM

Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all competing to buy a home automation company called R2 Studios, says the Wall Street Journal. The firm was founded just last year by Blake Krikorian, better known for starting Sling Media, the company responsible for the Slingbox TV streamer. Making the talks unusual is that R2 has yet to actually put any products on sale, except for a single Android app that can control lighting and heating systems.

The move to acquire R2 suggests that all three potential buyers may see home automation as an important frontier market. Apple, though, has generally shown no interest in home automation outside of patent filings about connecting systems to an iPhone via NFC. Some automation hardware is sold in the online Apple store. The company could conceivably want R2's help in the construction of a rumored TV set, which might be able to auto-detect peripherals. The WSJ comments that the progress and terms of the talks are uncertain. Some negotiations may be preliminary, the paper says, and a deal might not happen at all.

iphonerulez · Dec 20, 2012, 07:53 PM

Apple is being so foolish to go in on anything with Google. Apple and shareholders are going to end up on the short end. Anything Apple shares with Google turns into a windfall for Google and a loss for Apple. I don't know why Apple is always trying to save money because having a cash reserve isn't really doing much for Apple's share price nor is it helping the company get any sort of respect on Wall Street. Google is probably already working on how to make money on home automation and Apple will probably just sit on the patents and do nothing with them. Apple lacks any sort of aggressive tendences at all and it's really hurting the company's long-range outlook. While so many companies are being given decent growth potential, Apple is being seen as having next to none. Tim Cook needs to wake up and give investors something to look forward to instead of merely the company's demise.

blahblahbber · Dec 20, 2012, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by iphonerulez

Apple is being so foolish to go in on anything with Google. Apple and shareholders are going to end up on the short end. Anything Apple shares with Google turns into a windfall for Google and a loss for Apple. I don't know why Apple is always trying to save money because having a cash reserve isn't really doing much for Apple's share price nor is it helping the company get any sort of respect on Wall Street. Google is probably already working on how to make money on home automation and Apple will probably just sit on the patents and do nothing with them. Apple lacks any sort of aggressive tendences at all and it's really hurting the company's long-range outlook. While so many companies are being given decent growth potential, Apple is being seen as having next to none. Tim Cook needs to wake up and give investors something to look forward to instead of merely the company's demise.

Now that's one pee'd off investor!!.... one of many.... Well, what else did you expect? Google is very productive and puts their money and manpower to work in ways that crApple (the dictatorship) has not allowed. Did you expect something different here??

SockRolid · Dec 21, 2012, 01:50 AM

Originally Posted by iphonerulez

... Anything Apple shares with Google turns into a windfall for Google ...

96% of Google's profits come from ads.
Everything else they do loses money. Including Android.

tman · Dec 21, 2012, 03:55 AM

Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all competing to buy a home automation company called R2 Studios, says the Wall Street Journal.

It says they are COMPETING to buy the business, not buy it together. At least that's how I read it.

lockhartt · Dec 21, 2012, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by blahblahbber

Now that's one pee'd off investor!!.... one of many.... Well, what else did you expect? Google is very productive and puts their money and manpower to work in ways that crApple (the dictatorship) has not allowed. Did you expect something different here??

Er... what are you talking about? The flexibility and leeway allowed to Apple's engineers is no less broad than at Google, you just don't get to hear about it.

Not that this has anything to do with the topic, which has Apple, Google, and Microsoft apparently trying to obtain R2 INDEPENDENTLY, not as a cooperative.

Finally, if you just focus your efforts on making investors happy you'll be dead in no time as you'll be too afraid to innovate and take the risks that generate the sort of revenue growth Apple has enjoyed for the past decade or so. Anybody else match that growth? No... not even close.

If anything, I worry about Apple doing exactly what you seem to think they should... particularly with a former CFO at the helm. This would be the death of Apple, or at least the beginnings thereof.

Spheric Harlot · Dec 21, 2012, 06:06 AM

Originally Posted by lockhartt

Originally Posted by blahblahbber

Now that's one pee'd off investor!!.... one of many.... Well, what else did you expect? Google is very productive and puts their money and manpower to work in ways that crApple (the dictatorship) has not allowed. Did you expect something different here??

Er... what are you talking about? The flexibility and leeway allowed to Apple's engineers is no less broad than at Google, you just don't get to hear about it.

Indeed, by all accounts.

The major difference is that 19 out of twenty projects Apple engineers work on never get released, while Google apparently throws every half-hearted idea out there to great fanfare, only to kill it again a year later once it's become apparent that it doesn't make sense. Wave, Buzz, there's dozens of similar now-forgotten Google products.

The notable exception from Apple is Ping.

blahblahbber · Dec 21, 2012, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

Indeed, by all accounts.
The major difference is that 19 out of twenty projects Apple engineers work on never get released, while Google apparently throws every half-hearted idea out there to great fanfare, only to kill it again a year later once it's become apparent that it doesn't make sense. Wave, Buzz, there's dozens of similar now-forgotten Google products.
The notable exception from Apple is Ping.

I'd say google is testing the market when they release stuff.... I don't see anything wrong with that. crApple uses force to implement its ecosystem. That I think is a bit against the grain. If you think it's cutting edge, then I'd say "[it's] so cutting edge that you can feel the pain!"

Spheric Harlot · Dec 22, 2012, 05:49 AM

How is Apple using force to implement its ecosystem?

What is that even supposed to mean? And as opposed to what? Android? Which doesn't default to gmail, google calendars, and google play?

It's also generally accepted reality that Apple's ecosystem exists solely to drive hardware sales.

blahblahbber · Dec 23, 2012, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

How is Apple using force to implement its ecosystem?
What is that even supposed to mean? And as opposed to what? Android? Which doesn't default to gmail, google calendars, and google play?
It's also generally accepted reality that Apple's ecosystem exists solely to drive hardware sales.

hardwares sales driven by artificially locked or limited software/firmware to be more true.