There would have been no iPod without Steve Jobs, but also without Anthony Michael Fadell. Or Toni, as he is better known. This engineer trained at the University of Michigan does not receive the nickname “father of the iPod” for silly reasons: he participated in its development and part of its triumph.
But the iPod was just one of many triumphs for Apple in the years following this musical revolution, and Fadell was not around to play a role in the company’s later projects. What happened to him? Let’s review its post-Apple trajectory.
Apple’s Fadell was the iPod, the iPhone and especially Steve Jobs
Fadell joined Apple in 2001 to oversee development of the iPod, becoming a mainstay of the work he did alongside Steve Jobs. the executive also participated in the creation of iSight and iPhone prototypes
But one day, at the end of March 2010, after having reduced his responsibilities to merely advising Jobs, Fadell decided to leave Apple. He alleged personal reasons, but as of now we know it was to seek new career paths.
The ‘Nest’ era and the trace left on Google Home
It didn’t take long for Fadell to regain everyone’s interest. Frustration with a home thermostat gave him the idea to create Nestwhich broke the mold and introduced the new technologies of the day (and good design) to a thermostat industry that was moving much slower than other markets such as the smart phones. Essentially, Nest did to thermostats what the iPod did to music players.
Nest’s thermostat didn’t become a widely adopted product, but it did enjoyed a design niche and praise from all experts. This led to Google eventually acquiring Nest for then $3.2 billion in early 2014.
Unfortunately this success was not harvested between calm waters. Some media commented that there was tension between Fadell and Google executives who were waiting for more results following the Nest takeover, which led to Fadell leaving Alphabet and Google redirecting what had been done with Nest to Google Home. Some time later, Fadell admitted that all these transactions with Nest and Google were a mistake according to him.
To this day, we can still find traces of Tony Fadell’s fingerprints on Google home automation devices. Speakers and screens with a simple, functional and unintuitive design.
Tony Fadell, today: from product engineer to investor in the technologies of the future
After the days of iPod, iPhone and Nest with Google, Fadell decided to join as one of the managers of investor and consultancy Future Shape. The objective of this company is invest in startups new technologiesand at present the history it has is already more than 200 companies.
His approaches: bring these new technologies to the general public and take care of the planet in this way. In fact, last year he clearly stated in an interview with 20VC that “the world’s first billionaire will be the one who succeeds in innovating in the fight against climate change”. Maybe Fadell comes with that start get a technological revolution again.
If you’re interested in Fadell’s processes and history, you can read the book he wrote called “Build” about how he came to build products like the iPod or the Nest Thermostat. It is only in English, but you have it on Amazon Europe for 23 dollars.
