Wednesday 29 July 2015

Apple Ditches Nest Thermostat


Apple reportedly has pulled the Nest smart thermostat from both its online and brick-and-mortar stores, possibly paving the way for its own line of smart home appliances. The thermostat disappeared from Apple's product offerings earlier this month.

Apple's stores now are selling the Ecobee 3, a thermostat that works with Apple's HomeKit, an Internet of Things platform that's part of iOS. HomeKit allows users to control devices in the home via an iPhone or iPad. The newly launched Ecobee 3 retails for US$249.
This is not the first time Apple has pulled rival products. It stopped selling devices from Jawbone and Nike ahead of its launch of the Apple Watch.
However, it seemed that Apple's partnership with Nest was fairly solid, due largely to the fact that Nest CEO Tony Fadell helped develop Apple's iPod. Nest's staff includes many other former Apple employees, and there once was speculation that Apple might acquire the startup.
However, Nest was snapped up by Google for $3.2 billion early last year. That could have created a crack in the Apple-Nest relationship, which apparently has now fractured. It's not clear how big a rift there might be between the companies, however.
The Nest thermostat is still on sale in Apple retail outlets in the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and the Nest camera and smoke alarm could find their way to Apple stores in the near future.
"Apple is a valued partner to Nest, and our new products will be available in Apple in the coming weeks," Nest Labs spokesperson Ivy Choi told the E-Commerce Times.

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