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Nest & ADT Preparing Partnership to Augment Home Security

December 23, 2014

Nest is a familiar name for those who have been considering turning a current home into a smarter home. This breed of programmable thermostat has been shown to do quite a bit in the home, and there have been indications that the company behind it is moving beyond just temperature control and doing other things in the home as well, like acquiring Dropcam to provide a kind of home security. One of the latest indications, meanwhile, are reports that Nest and ADT—one of the leading providers of home security systems—have been in contact to connect the various Nest tools to ADT's own lineup.


The partnership, according to word from ADT's CEO Naren Gursahaney, would call for the various Nest products—smoke alarm, carbon monoxide detector, and thermostat alike—to hook into the ADT Pulse system, which in turn allows for customers to control security systems through mobile devices via an app. Gursahaney pointed to “...discussions with Fadell and his team...” that ADT has previously embarked upon, and represents a significant opportunity to not only tie in security through the app, but also smoke and carbon monoxide alerts, as well as even potentially home temperature adjustment.

This comes at a good time for ADT, who has been recently seeing a drop-off in customer growth according to a report from Forbes, thanks in large part to an increasingly growing quantity of do-it-yourself home security products emerging. So ADT is taking the opportunity to make some new partnerships, connect to some of that tech industry, and attempt to use the ADT name recognition as a way to bolster other, newer products. For instance, ADT has been recently seen working with If This Then That, a company which helps connect devices to cloud-based systems. That particular connection is allowing for further connections to things like the Jawbone fitness tracker line and the Philips Hue LED bulb.

A connection with Nest, meanwhile, would allow ADT to offer up an array of new systems for current subscribers and help get some new subscribers in the door, while allowing Nest access to that impressive ADT market, as well as those who might not have bought an ADT security system, but might instead have an interest in an ADT home automation system with security features. Naturally, there aren't any projections as to when this particular partnership might actually bear fruit, but the good news is that it's pretty likely to happen thanks to the sheer amount of possibility on either side of the fence.

Adding options to an existing system is seldom a bad idea. When people get access to more possible features, said people are likely to change minds about a possible drop. After all, many would conclude, there's now a lot more reason to stick around than there was previously, and when there's more reason to stick around, the combination of those extra reasons and sheer entropy should do the job of keeping everybody in place.

Of course, only time will ultimately tell just how well this works out in the end, but for Nest and ADT to get together and get working on new solutions suggests positive results afoot for both companies. Nest gets a bigger stage on which to perform, and ADT gets a new act to offer up for its clientele. That's good business all the way around, and business that should be, ultimately, well received.




Edited by Maurice Nagle



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