Google is buying robots because the physical world is about to change, too

Google just bought Boston Dynamics, makers of BigDog and PETMAN, which, according to TechCrunch is their eighth robotics acquisition…and it’s time to pay attention. This isn’t the same cute storyline as last January when Compressorhead, the all-robot metal band, gave us Motorhead’s Ace of Spades (watch the video, it’s priceless) and 5,000,000 plus YouTube hits later, robotics are still thought of as mostly autonomous, programmed machines — metallic muscle and memory. Google’s purchase shows why we need to stop thinking that way.

Google clearly has a different plan than Amazon’s Prime Air deliveries or metal musicians.

Why Google is buying robot companies

So why would such a successful company buy into something so different from their core offerings? We think it is because Google knows that there are 7 billion humans on the planet. Just 7 billion people who can use Gmail or Google Search or carry Android phone. They’re in heavy competition with Apple for smartphone marketshare and by some accounts, losing ground to the iPhone juggernaut.

But what if there was a way to take advantage of the supercomputer in everyone’s pockets, regardless of operating system? The physical world has made an enormous jump into the virtual world, a change we’re still going through. Big Data is a piece of that trend, as is mobility and cloud computing. But what happens when the virtual world decides to make a jump back into the physical? When everyone has in their pocket the ability to control from anywhere something physical, located anywhere, the stage is set for robotics.

A robot gold rush is coming

A robot can do our bidding no matter where we are and can keep us abreast of what’s happening anywhere it sits (or stands, or jumps…). A robot is a logical extension of who we are, that was simply waiting for enough connectivity, portability and computing power to come into existence. Now, keep in mind that the infrastructure required to make this happen is still in development, but there’s nothing more tempting than finding new ways to manage our lives and our workplace to spur innovation and investment. A robot goldrush is coming.

Today we started a new category called, “Robotics.” Stay tuned.