Nest Secure – A Small Step and a Giant Leap for Smart Home

Nest has announced a raft of products aimed at transforming the smart home device player into a smart home security system player. Initially focused on environment management with its eponymous and market leading smart thermostat, the company has been slow to add to build out its product line beyond smoke detectors and the video camera line it acquired. The raft new offerings, which follow the release of a lower price thermostat last month and the Nest Cam IQ Indoor just before that, show a new focus and new commitment to the wider smart home market, for Nest and its parent Alphabet.

The new security products comprising the Nest Smart Alarm System offering are the: 

• Nest Guard, a standalone control device which is a control panel/keypad device. Cellular back-up within the device is also supported at additional cost.
• Nest Detect, a motion sensor for door and windows that also detects motion in a room.
• Nest Tag, an NFC device that enables systems to be armed and disarmed without a PIN code.
• Nest Aware, an app to pull together operation and notification related to the system.
• Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, a weather-proof camera that uses facial recognition (Google FaceNet) and Voice Control (Google Assistant).

A system starter pack including Nest Guard, 2 Detect sensors and 2 Tags is priced at US$499. The new devices are not expected to start shipping until first half of 2018. Nest’s US$10 a month Nest Aware video storage and management subscription service will also extend to Nest Secure offering, and further out the company will offer professional monitoring as well. MONI (formerly Monitronics) is the first traditional security provider to announce support for Nest Secure.

Even though Nest is late to the smart doorbell and the self-install security market, the launch of Nest Secure is a significant step for Nest and for the wider smart home market. While the technology/functionality is relatively standard - although the use of NFC is notable -  the importance comes from the packaging of the system and the company’s position in the smart home market. The new devices pull together into a coherent system, one that can be developed and expanded to embrace greater home functionality. It also shows that Google and Alphabet remain aware and committed to expanding the smart home market.

The integration of Google technology in the new devices gives Nest not just the functionality of AI and face recognition that its competitors will struggle to develop on their own, but also signals a broader smart home engagement and partnership with Google – which sees much of the functionality of its own Google Home product replicated in the Nest IQ cameras.

In the wider market, smart home adoption has been beset by complexity and confusion, especially at the consumer level where even the largest consumer IT providers – Google, Apple, Samsung etc. – have required their target customers to deal with a host of acronyms, third-party devices, partnerships and protocol choices in order to pull together a simple smart home system. Meanwhile security installers have taken away a lot of that concern by curating their own smart home offerings, but with the added cost of monthly subscriptions and in some cases installation. Those lines have begun to blur but Nest has the backing (from Alphabet) and the brand recognition (and design cache) among consumers for this coordinated suite of products to simplify the buying decisions for consumers building out a DIY smart security system. Add in the approach which includes cellular back-up and partnerships with additional professional monitoring and the potential is even stronger. That makes Nest new offering a competitor to smart home and home security players alike.