Google Finally Selling That Nest Thermostat It Owns in Play Store
Before today, visiting the “Devices” section of the Google Play Store gave you a look at plenty of the company’s flagship products. Nexus smartphones? Check. Nexus tablets? Check. Chromebooks? Check. Interestingly enough, though, you couldn’t find a single Nest product, despite Google paying $3.2 billion for the company back in January.
Now the Nest has a new home; at least, the Nest thermostat does. You can find the device front and center on the Google Play Store’s home page, reminding you that “Saving energy is a beautiful thing.”
The Nest got an upgrade in terms of placement from Google, but the device is still the second-generation model we got two years ago. Google isn’t subsidizing the cost here, either (cue jokes about HVAC ads, they’re hilarious). The Nest still rings up at $250.
There are no new Nest products. No special deals. No “buy a Nexus 10 and get a Nest thermostat free” bundles. Google has simply decided that it’s going to start selling the thermostat it paid over $3 billion for in its own store, and will otherwise leave the small startup and its products intact. At least, for the time being.
You’ll only find the Nest thermostat, as sales of the Nest Protect smoke detector were stopped due to issues with the product’s “wave to deactivate” feature. We may see the Nest Protect in the Google Play Store someday, should Nest fix its issues and resume sales of the device.
We’re not sure how many folks were looking to pick up the Nest thermostat by going to the Google Play Store, but this move will at least get the device in front of customers who may have otherwise been looking for other Google products. As Google gets more into smart home technology and wearables like Glass and Android Wear devices, there’s a good chance we’ll see the Play Store continue to grow to accommodate more products.
And once they all connect and communicate with one another, we might finally arrive at that connected future Google is planning for us.
[Source: Ars Technica]