Frost & Sullivan Lauds Nest Labs for Developing Thermostat that Delivers Unparalleled Value to its Customers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the programmable thermostats market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Nest Labs (Nest) with the 2012 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Enhancement. Identifying a lack of programmable thermostats that offer high ease-of-use to customers, Nest introduced its Nest® Learning Thermostat™ in October 2011. Nest's thermostat offers high user convenience with its auto-programming capability and helps users save energy by lowering the temperature when no one is home and guiding people to consume energy more wisely.

"This is the world's first learning thermostat, designed to learn from people's activities and temperature preferences," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Alejandra Lozano. "Nest thermostats not only ensure a comfortable home environment, but also help reduce energy consumption by lowering the temperature when the user is not at home and giving customers the information they need to make informed changes to their usage habits."

Besides eliminating the need for the user to set the temperature manually every day, the thermostat is designed to be easy to install and operate, delivering additional value to the customer.

Priced at $249 each, the Nest thermostat delivers high price-performance value to its customers, backed by its unmatched capability to reduce energy consumption. It is equipped with Nest Sense Technology, which offers a number of educational and energy-saving features, including Auto-Away, the Nest Leaf, and Time to Temperature.

Auto-Away detects when there is no movement in the home for more than two hours and goes into an energy-conservation mode. The device also encourages users to select a more energy-efficient temperature, which is lower than the usual temperature preferred by that specific user. If the user changes the temperature setting to this lower and more energy-efficient level, the Nest Leaf appears on the display to reinforce that the user is saving both energy and money at that specific temperature. Further, the Nest thermostat tells users how long it takes to reach a desired temperature to prevent them from drastically changing the temperature.

The Nest thermostat can be connected to a home's Wi-Fi network, which enables the user to adjust the temperature or check energy usage remotely through a Web-enabled laptop or smartphone. However, it can also operate in a disconnected state, unlike competing products.

Finally, to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the thermostat, Nest gave the device a metallic-finished enclosure with a mirror-like surface that reflects the color of the walls and blends in with the surrounding decor.

"While other companies focus on incorporating unnecessary features in their thermostats, Nest has focused on delivering a thermostat with core functionalities that enable the customers to easily program the device and help them reduce their energy usage," concludes Lozano. "With such an exceptional value proposition, the Nest Learning Thermostat is expected to create new standards in the programmable thermostat industry."

Due to such an advanced product, Nest has achieved very positive response from the market. In fact, within a few days of the introduction, the company reported that its entire stock of the Nest Learning Thermostats was sold out until 2012. In light of such achievements, Nest was chosen as the worthy recipient of the 2012 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award in the North American programmable thermostat market.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. This award recognizes the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and, ultimately, customer base expansion.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Nest Labs

Nest is focused on addressing home-energy consumption with an elegantly designed solution – one that people will actually enjoy using. Founded by Apple alums Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, Nest brings together a world-class team with the broad backgrounds needed to deliver an amazing product that blends technology with ease of use. Nest is privately funded and based in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information, visit www.nest.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan