Nest Cam: Formerly Dropcam

Devices & Integrations
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Dropcam is now Nest Cam:

1080p Video, 180 Degree field of view. Nest aware service available for $10 a month.

Still seems a bit expensive for what it does.

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They also started the slow introduction of ā‰ˆ 5% insurance discounts for Nest Protect usersā€¦

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Yupā€¦ No PTZ, and no non-cloud access or control, I presume.

But consumers want simplicity and aesthetic designā€¦ This is Nestā€™s wheelhouse.

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Will Dropcam (Nest Cam) continue to be integrated into SmartThings? Will SmartThings finally get Nest Support? @Ben @April ?

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iā€™m with @jody.albritton . Way too much for itā€™s abilities. Saw their commercial on youtube. Must be $1000 worth of cameras.

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Regarding integration of Nest Products (all of them, now and more to comeā€¦):

Itā€™s important to realize that Nest and SmartThings are becoming direct competitors, albeit with some major differences in strategy and marketing.

It is my opinion that they will integrate only as much as, and as little as, each feels strategically optimal.

Nest has a lot of partners listed as ā€œWorks With Nestā€ā€¦ But not SmartThings (yet). Think about why this is the case.

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In order to replace my foscam setup I would need to spend about 1600.00 on cameras. 5 of my cameras are outdoor cameras so there would be the expense of adding outdoor housings to my nest cams at 30-40 bucks a pop. I have already invested in blueiris and sighthound as well. All in my current setup cost me around 800 bucks and does most if not all of what the Nest Cams would accomplish. Some of the smarter things like notification on movement that includes a video/capture of the incident might be nice, but I am getting there with sighthound. 99 bucks would be a good price point, but even then that seems a little high given the hardware involved. Nest is going the premium Apple route with their pricing and features.

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I think it is an excellent strategy.

Marketing to the anything less than premium is not cost effective, considering the lower margins + cost of support. SmartThings pricing strategy continues to concern me because the relatively low margins donā€™t make up for STs operations costs. I suppose at some scale it will work.

Nest thermostat has been somewhat (or very?) successful, despite being, well just a rather overpriced flashy thermostat. Nest is laser focused on maintaining that customer experience.

If Nest help can snag those home insurance discounts too, then itā€™s a win-win.

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The most requested feature in regards to Dropcam has always been to make an outdoor camera. Instead, they make it 1080 capable which will only chew up more bandwith. The outdoor housings on the market are not the best. The only reason I have dropcams is because I picked up two and a really cheap price due to they fact the were mispriced.

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I agree.

But Steve Jobs once said that he ignores market research. He felt that it was the companyā€™s responsibility to tell customers what features they should want.

That seems to have worked for Apple.

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Does that mean you bought an apple watch?

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I didnā€™tā€¦ But youā€™ve definitely picked up on where I was leading:

  • There were many people who held off on purchasing a Smart Watch until Apple Watch was released. Apple Watch is certainly getting a great deal of attention, much more than any Android watch, and Pebble.

  • Drop Cam made the IP camera easy to use, and Nest Cam will significantly influence the market. Just as nobody thought they needed or wanted an intelligent Thermostat or talking Smoke Detector, or iPod and iTunes.

  • I have seen and heard many people are convinced that Apple will ā€œdo Smart Home rightā€ and are holding off consideration of other vendors. Butā€¦ I think Nest is well on the path of establishing themselves as ā€œthe Apple of Smart Homeā€, and Apple is stumbling with their HomeKit strategy. Meanwhile, notice that Nest does not mention Google or Android in their marketing materials, BTW.

  • Iā€™m tempted to think that SmartThings, ironically, may be positioned by the market (not by their marketing!) as ā€œthe Android of Smart Homeā€. In other words, STā€™s ā€œvery openā€ is a great feature, but I fear that doesnā€™t resonate to the same consumers as Apple / Nest.

Of course, it is a big potential market with many niches. Technically, SmartThings preceded Apple & Nest. But technically, Palm Treo & Blackberry preceded Apple & Android. In this analogy, I sure hope SmartThings doesnā€™t turn out to be ā€œthe Palm Treo of Smart Homeā€.

Does Smart Home require extraordinary company vision to set the trend instead of followā€¦ Well, ST has that, though differently than Apple and Nest.

To avoid going head-to-head, SmartThings could instead try a strategy of extraordinary customer focus, instead of product / platform focus. I dunno.

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I was too too restless and couldnā€™t avoid getting one. Available for pick up in most NJ Best Buyā€™s today. Will pick it up this evening. 50$ BB gift card from earlier did help.

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Not 100% accurate, but the fear of brand silos is definitely here:

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Will hook it up tomorrow morningā€¦ :wink:

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At first try doesnā€™t look like ST Dropcam connect sees it. Cannot add it to ST using connect. Has a much wider coverage.

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Will the new nest cam work with ST? It looks just like the drop camā€¦

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Please post at

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I removed all dropcams from ST, removed connect app, re-added cameras, dropcams were detected but not nest cam as of now.

Even the Dropcam iOS app will not detect it. The newer Nest app detects both Dropcams as well as Nest cams. The living room is a nest cam. At some point the old app will definitely go away and only the Nest app will stay.

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I got my Nestcam yesterday and still canā€™t get it to connect. Nest web site says they are down for maintenance till Friday (yesterday said Thursday).