Nest says it has sold over 11 million devices since 2011
Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz says his smart home company has sold more than 11 million devices since it was founded.
Nest has sold over 11 million smart home devices since the company got its start in 2011, according CEO Marwan Fawaz. Back then, Nest was a startup with a big dream. Founded by former Apple execs, Matt Rogers and Tony Fadell, Nest's inaugural product was its Learning Thermostat.
This app-enabled thermostat (now in its third iteration) promised to automatically adjust your heat and A/C to your needs. It wasn't the first phone-connected thermostat to ever reach stores, but the first-gen Nest Learning Thermostat dazzled folks by offering a fresh design on a typically-utilitarian product.
Google bought Nest in 2014 and Nest purchased security camera maker Dropcam soon after. Since then, Nest has added to its product offerings with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, indoor and outdoor cameras, home security systems, a new, less expensive thermostat, and an upcoming smart doorbell.
Now Google is bringing the once-independent Nest brand back under its wing -- and plans to make every Nest product work with Google's voice AI, Google Assistant. That move isn't surprising now that Amazon, Google and now Apple all offer standalone voice-enabled wireless speakers. In fact, many of Nest's products already support Google Assistant. But Google now wants to ensure its voice assistant works with both new and existing, non-Google-Assistant-compatible products.
In contrast to Nest's 11 millions devices sold figure, this past fall Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stated that his company has sold "tens of millions" of Alexa-enabled products. Google hasn't released sales figures for its Google Home speaker line, but various research firms have estimated Amazon controls about 70 percent of the US smart speaker market, which means Google has a lot of catching up to do.
