You say thermostats are simple, yet I know lots of people that can't use them. I regularly find my own utterly basic home thermostat set at some crazy level because someone was too hot or cold at some point earlier.

It was a pretty good market,Nest seemed to have early momentum and now seemed to have squandered it.

It took me maybe 10 minutes to set up my programmable thermostat, and I probably never need to touch it again.

It cost like $40. I just can't see spending $250 for something to save that 10 minutes. And that's assuming that the Nest actually takes zero setup. What if I have to dig into it because its internal logic is doing something weird?

For people who do see the benefit (I am one of those as I programmed mine in ~ 10 minutes as well), it's much more time and money efficient to use the programmable that came with my house than it is to buy some $250 contraption, install it, sync it, then learn how to use it.

With gadgets, the world is divided into those who love them for their own sake, those who see enough utility in them to invest the added time/money (relative to lower tech alternatives) and those who do not care enough to use the alternates or the gadgets (ie, most of humanity).