Ecobee, a Toronto-based smart-thermostat maker, has great ambitions about controlling your entire smart home ecosystem.
Rohit Sriram, the company’s product management director, and his team are working to achieve those dreams and beat their largest rival, Nest, which is a company that was acquired by Google to make their smart home dreams come true. Sriram is working on various projects including stress testing the Ecobee thermostats built-in speaker. In a statement he said:
“Our previous audio lab wasn’t soundproof, so engineers and others sitting outside would just go insane.”
Ecobee co-founder and CEO Stuart Lombard says that the company will never try to out-Google Google as this would be an impossible battle at this stage of the game. In a statement, Lombard said:
“The key for us is not to try and out-Google Google. Our strategy is really built around focus and innovation. And I think if you look at the thermostat specifically, we’re delivering more innovations to the market faster.”
Lombard is looking to fulfil his vision of a “helpful home,” stating that the company’s roadmap will lead them in that direction.
For now, Nest remains the leader in smart thermostats in the United States with a total of 73 percent market share. Based on the current status of the smart home market, there is a lot of room for growth. Analysts are predicting that consumers will spend a total of $277 billion on smart home gear by 2022.
[via CNET]
