The residential security industry has eagerly awaited the potential fallout from the August announcement that Google had acquired a 6.6% stake in ADT. During its Q3 earnings call earlier this month, ADT CEO Jim DeVries shed some light on the technology and deployment timeline stemming from the company’s “ADT + Google” partnership.
As indicated in August, a key outcome of the ADT/Google relationship would be a next-generation home security and automation platform based on products and peripherals from both ADT and Google Nest, featuring deep device integration and enhanced alarm verification. DeVries said during the call that the partnership has started and developed quickly enough to accelerate their initial timetable for product release.
“We now plan to go to market with a first generation do it for me (DIFM) or professionally installed offering in partnership with Google in
the second half of 2021,” DeVries said. “The offering will feature co-branding approval, integrate Google Nest products, and offer their extraordinary video analytics platform. This offering will leverage our recently introduced and very well received Command and Control platform to the end of 2022.”
DeVries added: “Following a comprehensive review of our alternatives, we have concluded that ADT should and will own our next generation platform, which will be developed entirely within Google Cloud. Our decision allows ADT to have full control of our future roadmap and will enable ADT+Google to deliver operational and efficiency benefits, better long-term economics, and ensure that we continue to be the leader in home automation and security into the future.”
Finally, the extension of Command and Control will allow the platform to support end-customers for a long time, DeVries added. “We believe these Command and Control customers with integrated Nest products and services will perform well on an attrition basis,” he said.
Alarm.com Impact
Earnings call season also gave the industry much more clarity on the ADT/Alarm.com relationship. It is no secret in the industry that the ADT Command & Control platform was built on an Alarm.com software foundation, and the new ADT+Google partnership and technology plan threw the Alarm.com relationship into question.
Extending the Command and Control platform until the end of 2022 means the ADT and Alarm.com partnership will continue. In a Nov. 6 earnings call, Alarm.com President & CEO Stephen Trundle outlined the future of the relationship.
“Under the extended agreement, ADT will continue to promote and install their Command and Control offering to nearly all new professionally installed smart security subscribers until early 2023. Under the terms, we will support ADT with the integration of certain specified Google products into the Command and Control platform in early 2021. After the extended period ends, ADT has indicated that in 2023, they intend to begin activating professionally installed accounts in their residential business on a software platform that they are developing in concert with Google. We have agreed to support this initiative with a royalty-bearing IP license.”
Added DeVries: “The platform decision and the roadmap really allows us to control our destiny. Our partnership with Alarm.com has been extraordinary, but we now think, in coordination with Google, that we are better positioned to own and develop our own platform.”
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine (http://www.securitybusinessmag.com).
