Sometimes you recall something and fix it. Sometimes you figure fixing it is too much trouble. The cool feature that allowed users to communicate with their Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detectors by waving a hand in front of it was worth $31 apparently. Because after an April recall (its cool wave feature would sometimes shut off the alarm inadvertently), the Nest Protect is now back in stores without the wave–and it’s priced at $99, down from $130.
Of course it’s not only the removal of the Nest Wave feature, as it was called, that accounts for the discount–there are myriad factors that go into pricing consumer goods. But now owners of Nest Protect can carry on with their dance parties minus the fear of a Fosse jazz hands pantomimist accidentally silencing a warning about deadly carbon monoxide levels. Nest simply may have decided that the cool wave feature had served its purpose. When Google shocked some onlookers by buying Nest for 3.2 billion in cash earlier this year, the search giant said it loved the engineering that produced the wave feature and made the company look so innovative. So if taking it away now costs them a mere $31 a unit, Nest can rest easy remembering how they rode the wave to a $3 billion shore.
