Google Pleased with Hardware And Nexus Performance; Talk Nest, Glass And Other Wearable

Google's earnings call doesn't feature CEO Larry Page this time around, which is a disappointment in terms
of product discussion. But Chief Business Officer
Nikesh Arora discussed briefly hardware during the
call, flagging the search giant's growing satisfaction
with the Nexus line and with the Nexus 5 in
particular.

Arora said that Google is seeing "strong interest in
Nexus hardware," and "great reception for Nexus 5,"
especially during the holiday sales period. That's due
to the marketing team's performance creating ads and
also fostering a retail environment conductive to
purchases.

On the subject of Nest, Google reiterated the line it's
been touting so far, which is that they saw the goals
of Nest and themselves in alignment. Google wants to
help Nest scale, it said, and will continue to devote
resources to this goal. That's somewhat different from
what TechCrunch heard recently, which suggested that the learning thermostat and smoke detector
weren't really the focus of the deal; instead, Google
wants to put the Nest team in charge of all of its hardware projects.

Asked whether the Motorola acquisition will affect
their hardware plans, Arora said that he thinks their
continued investments in other areas should show
that they're still committed to hardware.

"As you know from the Nest acquisition, Glass and
wearables, we're continuing to innovate," he said
about their ongoing hardware projects. It's an
interesting characterization, because Google has yet
to make anything public around wearables beyond
Glass, yet Arora separated it out as a new category. Late last year, we heard that a Google smart watch might be right around the corner, however, so this could be a tantalizing hint that this kind of device (or
other wearable efforts) could indeed be on the
horizon. Remember that Google acquired WIMM Labs last year, which made an Android-powered smartwatch.