Verified source report

The cost of the smart home is going up

Selling the smart home has been hard. Even Amazon has lost money in the space, despite putting hundreds of millions of Echo devices in people's homes. Google has also reportedly struggled to turn a profit from its substantial investment in Nest. But now Google is seeing dollar signs in the prospect of selling AI-driven subscriptions […] Google is expanding its AI-powered Gemini for Home capabilities beyond its cameras and smart speakers to other manufacturers to sell more subscriptions. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Selling the smart home has been hard. Even Amazon has lost money in the space, despite putting hundreds of millions of Echo devices in people's homes. Google has also reportedly struggled to turn a profit from its substantial investment in Nest . But now Google is seeing dollar signs in the prospect of selling AI-driven subscriptions in the smart home.

Google Home Speaker — Source image associated with the linked report from The Verge. Image selected from source-page metadata and displayed with attribution and link back; VINI does not copy the image into local storage unless rights are cleared.Credit: Image via The Verge · Source-hosted image; rights remain with the publisher or credited rights holder. · Image source

Vinita Duniphin Technology Source report

What happened

According to The Verge’s source item, The cost of the smart home is going up, Selling the smart home has been hard. Even Amazon has lost money in the space, despite putting hundreds of millions of Echo devices in people’s homes. Google has also reportedly struggled to turn a profit from its substantial investment in Nest. But now Google is seeing dollar signs in the prospect of selling AI-driven subscriptions […] Google is expanding its AI-powered Gemini for Home capabilities beyond its cameras and smart speakers to other manufacturers to sell more subscriptions. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Selling the smart home has been hard. Even Amazon has lost money in the space, despite putting hundreds of millions of Echo devices in people’s homes. Google has also reportedly struggled to turn a profit from its substantial investment in Nest . But now Google is seeing dollar signs in the prospect of selling AI-driven subscriptions in the smart home.

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Technology file for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-21T16:15:00+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: The cost of the smart home is going up via The Verge. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

This source-cited VINI report links to the original publisher record. VINI does not republish third-party article bodies without rights clearance. 1 source listed.

Source links

The cost of the smart home is going upThe Verge - 2026-05-21T16:15:00+00:00

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