Nest Announces Its Smoke Detector
“Safety shouldn’t be annoying,” said Matt Rogers, Nest founder and vice president of engineering. “It was unacceptable to us that almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in properties without working smoke alarms. These products are required by law and are supposed to keep us safe, yet people hate them. We wanted to change that, so we created Nest Protect: Smoke + Carbon Monoxide.”
Whilst the product makes sense as a member of Nest’s range, smoke detectors are a much harder sell than thermostats. Smoke detectors are largely passive devices. Nest trades on annoyances … and smoke detectors annoy you on a less frequent basis than thermostats.
This is compounded by the fact that thermostats are inherently good demos, either on video or in a store, whereas a smoke detector just sits there like a brick.
The most common scenario when consumers will buy a new smoke detector will be when their current smoke detector comes to the end of its life. Instilling an upgrade (not merely replacement) pattern into the general public for a smoke detector is an uphill battle.