Reports revealed that Apple has decided to pull Google's Nest Learning Thermostat from its physical and online stores, leaving listed for sale only smart home devices that are compatible with Apple's HomeKit.
Apple's change on its online store was first discovered by Fortune, stating that products made by Nest were no longer listed on the website.
Apple-centric news website Apple Insider confirmed this through a quick check, discovering that while Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Protect still showed up through the quick search bar of the online Apple Store, their pages on the website have been taken down.
A spokesperson for Nest stated that Apple is considered as a valuable partner for the company, and that its new devices will resume selling through Apple along with other channels over the coming weeks. Apple seems to be planning to stock Nest Protect and Nest Cam devices, but will not do so for the Nest Learning Thermostat.
Another report confirmed that the listing of the Nest Learning Thermostat has been removed from Apple stores, with a spokesperson for Apple stating that the device was removed from both physical and online stores earlier in July. This is the second time that Apple will be stopping the sale of the device, but this time, it looks like it is permanent.
Apple's stores were among the first promoters of Nest, with the company tapped as an exclusive partner back in 2012. However, Apple has been diving deeper into the smart home industry with the creation of HomeKit, a framework based on the company's iOS mobile operating system that consolidates the controls of smart home devices.
Earlier in July, Apple Stores launched the sale of ecobee3, which is the first HomeKit-compatible smart thermostat. Products manufactured by Nest are compatible with Apple's iOS, but they do not work with the HomeKit. Recently, Google unveiled Brillo, an Internet of Things platform to rival HomeKit, which was created with assistance from Nest.
Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, former executives of Apple, are the co-founders of Nest. Fadell, termed as the "godfather of the iPod," recruited several Apple employees. In 2013, Nest was purchased by Google for a sum of $3.2 billion.
