Chilly relations: Nest thermostats removed from Apple store

Edward C. Baig | USA TODAY

NEW YORK — One of the questions I posed to Nest Labs founder Tony Fadell just after Google acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in January 2014 was how weird it would be for him to be working for Google after Apple? As an Apple executive, after all, Fadell was instrumental in creating the iPod.

"At the end of the day I have a lot of people who worked with me at Apple here (at Nest)," Fadell told me at the time. "And I still have a ton of friends at Apple. I got some really nice congratulation notes from some great people at Apple."

The relationship may not be quite as chummy nowadays, not with Fadell firmly ensconced at Google and the two tech goliaths fighting it out in the burgeoning Internet of Things home arena. Apple has removed the very product that put Nest on the map, that being the Wi-Fi controlled Nest Learning Thermostat, from its online retail and online stores. Instead, Apple is pushing the rival Ecobee 3 smart W-Fi thermostat. (Nest's thermostat is still on sale in Apple's UK retail store and certain other European stores.)

Indeed, when I visited the "Connected Home" section of Apple's online store, Ecobee was the top item listed, along myriad other Wi-Fi products, including a Withings HD security camera. Such cameras are another area where Google-owned Nest competes; it recently launched the Nest Cam cameras.

Apple of course is firmly behind its own HomeKit framework for smart devices. This isn't the first time Apple has removed rival products from its stores in favor of its own brands. Apple, for example, removed Bose headphones from its stores after Bose and Apple's Beats brand settled a legal dispute over the noise cancellation technology in premium headphones.

A search for headphones at Apple's online store does turn up Bose QuietComfort 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones for $249.95 but the headphones are listed as "currently unavailable."

For the record, Nest issued a statement saying that "Apple is a valued partner to Nest and our new products will be available through Apple in the coming weeks."

In its own statement, Apple said "that we regularly make changes to our merchandising mix."

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY tech columnist @edbaig on Twitter