Google acquired Nest back in 2014, and since then, the company has been looking for ways to integrate the smart home platform more deeply into its own services. As such, the business has been working on shutting down the dedicated Nest app and web app in favor of the Google Home app, but as with many of Google’s random software moves, the new product just isn’t as good as the one it’s replacing. With the latest Nest Cams only working with the Google Home app, many people are turning to eBay to get older, discontinued models that still support the good old Nest app.
As spotted by Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii, Nest’s older cameras are going up on eBay at inflated prices, with sellers asking for almost twice the MSRP for products like the previous-gen Cam IQ Outdoor, which originally started at $349 and is now going for $650 (including shipping). Now, it’s not clear if people are actually buying these products at these prices (they may be listed for this much, though if there’s no buyer, there’s no sale), but asking for this much money suggests that people are willing to pay more than the MSRP for sure.
As for why people would be willing to pay that much for older technology, it looks like the Google Home app is to blame. Even years after Google first started offering customers to switch from the Nest app to the Google Home app, the latter is still severely inferior. In it, the new Nest Cams are missing simple things like a web app for access to your cameras on your desktop, and the app also makes the process of viewing captured videos and events much more cumbersome than its Nest counterpart. While it’s possible to keep using the Nest app with older Nest Cams, the latest generation of the security cameras only works with Google Home.
This isn’t the first time Google is killing off a perfectly functional service with something inferior, all in the name of simplifying its app lineup or just for marketing’s sake. Google’s mesh router system Wifi used to have its own dedicated app, the old Google Pay app was replaced with what is essentially an inferior version of itself for no good reason, and it took YouTube Music years to remotely come close to its predecessor Google Play Music when it comes to features.
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