Honeywell, the company that launched the first round thermostat in 1953, is looking to challenge Google's Nest with a connected thermostat called Lyric.
Introduced on Tuesday, Lyric can be controlled remotely through a smartphone app and looks similar to Nest's device with a sleek, round shape, Bloomberg News reported. When Nest came on the scene with its smart thermostat, the move shook up a mostly stable industry.
"Nest made the lowly thermostat something much more interesting," said Neil Strother, an analyst with the research unit of Chicago-based Navigant Consulting Inc., which analyzes the smart thermostat business, as quoted by Bloomberg News. "It's not just a fuddy-duddy product now because it can connect."
Through the smartphone connection, Lyric can detect when people are away from their homes and automatically adjust the temperature based on the preferences they have set.
Temperature regulation is a substantial industry, worth $3.1 billion in U.S. residential and industrial thermostat revenue. Honeywell currently holds a 39 percent share, while Johnson Control comes in at second place with 6.5 percent of the industry, Bloomberg News reported.
Honeywell, which also produces smoke detectors, humidifiers, window sensors and other home devices, has planned a "family of products" under the new Lyric brand.
"Our thought was that there are a lot of things Honeywell does in the home, let's start to unify those experiences," said Beth Wozniak, president of Honeywell's Environmental and Combustion Controls unit, as quoted by Bloomberg News.
The Lyric smart thermostat, which is priced above Nest at $279, will be sold through Honeywell's professional channels first and is expected to launch at Lowe's on Aug. 1, according to VentureBeat.
Honeywell sued Nest two years ago for alleged infringements on seven patents, making for an even more interesting competition between the rivals.
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