Brief: Nest Hatches Smart Home Futures With Traditional Partners And Incremental Products

After a very long product hiatus, Nest — the smart home device company acquired by Google in January 2014 — finally came up with a new offering. On June 17, 2015, it announced new versions of its streaming camera and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector, plus an overhauled integrated mobile app. More interestingly, it announced a program of insurance company partnerships for discounts on Nest Protect and insurance premiums for customers who share basic status data. This brief analyzes the smart home market insights that the Nest moves illustrate, and it offers CIOs three recommendations for making business technology choices to help their companies tackle the emerging markets of smart home activities.