The 1999 Disney movie “Smart House” helped usher smart home technology into pop culture. Katy Sagal voiced the personal applied technology home, better known as P.A.T., bringing familiarity to a new age of home automation and communicating technology. What followed in the 2000s was a rapid advance in smart home devices and an introduction to the IoT — not to mention three “Matrix” movies warning that technology will one day take over.
The Nest thermostat, which is now owned by Google, launched in 2011 and brought the smart home technology game directly to HVAC contractors. It was not only a technological disruptor, but the device also disrupted the HVAC market as direct-to-consumer sales caused issues with installation and service. In 2014, Google purchased Nest Labs outright for $3.2 billion, but the brand remained autonomous. In 2018, Nest announced that Google would be taking over the brand, which had grown way beyond thermostats, and as of May 2019, nest.com has moved to the Google Store and been rebranded as Google Nest.