Honeywell turns up heat in thermostat war with Google
The thermostat war has spread beyond colleagues squabbling over the office temperature.
With Google’s Nest unit shaking up a once-staid market, Honeywell International is striking back with a WiFi thermostat introduced this week. By working with Apple, the Lyric can be controlled by a smartphone and has a sleek, round look with a large digital display, similar to Nest’s.
Honeywell’s 39 per cent share of US thermostat sales last year makes the company a target for rivals rushing out equipment promising energy savings, more comfort and less user confusion.
The No 2 competitor, Johnson Controls, had 6.5 per cent of the US$3.1 billion ($3.62 billion) in residential and industrial thermostat revenue, according to New York-based researcher IBISWorld.
“Nest made the lowly thermostat something much more interesting,” said Neil Strother, an analyst with Chicago’s Navigant Consulting. “It’s not just a fuddy-duddy product now because it can connect.”
Honeywell has signed to participate in Apple’s HomeKit, a platform unveiled last week to run home gadgets including locks and lights. The new WiFi thermostats will also be part of a “family of products” under the Lyric brand, said Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell’s Environmental and Combustion Controls unit.
“Our thought was that there are a lot of things Honeywell does in the home, so let’s start to unify those experiences,” Wozniak said.
Honeywell also makes smoke detectors, humidifiers, window sensors and other home devices that customers will be able to control remotely. All will face new competition in the era of connected homes, such as Nest’s alarm for smoke and carbon monoxide.
Revenue for smart thermostats is poised to outpace the rest of the market, surging 16-fold to US$1.4 billion in 2020, according to Navigant.