Following the news that startup Nest began selling its smart thermostat through Apple’s online store, the company announced on Thursday that its device is now available via Amazon, too. The move shows how Nest has been ramping up its capacity, and is trying to morph into a more mainstream, commercial thermostat player.
While the company doesn’t disclose sales volumes, a Nest spokesperson told me back in April that they’d done a survey of 10,000 of their customers (so they have at least that amount, and many more, the spokesperson said). The thermostat is also available at Lowe’s and through Nest’s online store.
There have been other digital thermostats out on the market for years, but Nest is looking to bring smart algorithms, nice design, and a cool brand to the normally boring world of thermostats. Nest’s learning thermostat learns your behavior over a couple weeks and starts helping you save energy by turning down heating and cooling when it isn’t necessary to your comfort (like when you leave the house, or during certain times of day).
Nest is attempting to turn the learning thermostat into a coveted device like Apple’s iPhone or iPad. Nest founder Tony Fadell was the former chief architect at Apple where he led the development of the iPod and the first three versions of the iPhone. He left Apple three years ago to start Nest.
Nest has — and will continue to have — battles to fight as a potentially disruptive startup in this space. For example thermostat giant Honeywell slapped Nest with a lawsuit for patent infringement, which Nest denies. Selling consumers thermostats — particularly a $ 250 thermostat — also might prove to be a difficult market, given a lot consumers currently don’t go out and buy (or even think about) thermostats.
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