Apple has a history of removing third-party products from its stores once they start competing with Apple’s own products, not that you can blame it. Just as the company pulled Fitbit and Jawbone products once the Apple Watch was close to releasing, Apple has removed Google-owned Nest smart thermostats from its store to prevent them from competing with the company’s own smart home products, such as the Ecobee 3.
You can no longer purchase Google’s popular smart thermostat on Apple’s online store or at its retail locations. Apple confirmed to Mashable it has pulled the web-connected product — considered the first mainstream smart home product — from its shelves and website. The move comes as the first batch of smart home products that work on Apple’s HomeKit platform become available for purchase. Although the thermostat was only recently discovered as missing from Apple’s product offerings, it was removed earlier this month. Apple was amongst the first retailers to carry the Nest when it debuted in 2011. Not surprisingly, it has already been replaced with the first HomeKit-enabled thermostat, the Ecobee 3 ($249). Apple’s product assortment is always changing — and it recently scaled down on the number of items it is offering in stores — but the removal doesn’t come as a huge surprise as the company looks to promote the incoming flux of HomeKit-enabled devices.
