Nest founder Tony Fadell is leaving the company, he said in a Friday blog post. Marwan Fawaz, technical advisory board chair at ADT, will succeed him as CEO. Fadell called the news “bittersweet,” saying “there is never a perfect time to transition.” The company has grown to “much more than a thermostat company,” and is now a “hardware + software + services ecosystem” still in early growth phase, he said. Nest's future is bright, he said, saying the transition plan has been in place since late last year. Fadell will “remain involved” as an adviser to Google parent Alphabet, he said.

SmartThings is using Amazon's Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and the Smart Home Skill application programming interface to offer customers voice-activated home control, said Amazon Friday. “Offering customers the ability to control devices connected to the Samsung SmartThings platform with their voice was a natural next step,” said Brett Worthington, SmartThings vice president-global business development. Developers have released more than 1,000 skills for the Alexa virtual assistant available through Amazon’s Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV, Tap and other devices, Amazon said. Consumers also can use Alexa to search for information, do banking, order food, monitor fitness activities and check travel arrangements, it said. The free ASK gives developers a “low-friction way to build for voice” in “just a few hours,” said Amazon. Developers don’t need speech recognition experience or natural language understanding because the kit “does all the work” to hear, understand, and process a customer’s request “so a developer doesn’t have to,” said Amazon. With the launch of ASK, Amazon added features to make it easier to create Alexa skills, including new built-in intents and slots, account linking and audio clips, said the company, saying it’s also more convenient for customers to find skills through skill sorting, ratings, reviews and “relaxed invocation phrases.” Capital One customers can use Alexa for direct voice access to check account balances, make credit card payments and see recent account changes, said Amazon. Domino’s is giving customers a hands-free way to place and track pizza orders. Fitbit users can check their fitness stats and Kayak users can access travel details by voice with Alexa, it said. Uber customers can order a ride through Alexa without using a smartphone or tablet, Amazon said.

Nest released new application program interfaces for developers, allowing them to create integrations with third-party smart home products. Customers can now receive snapshots from their Nest Cam on demand, a spokeswoman emailed us Tuesday. Nest also is providing activity zone support to notify Nest Aware subscription customers of activity that occurs in specific Nest Cam viewing areas, and it created integrations to let customers know when their thermostat is locked, said the spokeswoman. Through integration with Nest Cam, August Doorbell Cam owners can see who’s at the door, Lifx bulbs can automatically turn on if motion is sensed in an activity zone and users of the simplehuman sensor mirror pro can capture and re-create light settings, Nest said. New integrations for the Nest thermostat are available with AT&T’s Digital Life app, Belkin WeMo lights, Lutron’s Caseta Wireless dimmer switch, Misfit fitness bands, fans via P&G’s Febreze Connect app, Waxman’s leak-detection app and a SkyBell alert button, Nest said.

Purchase intent for smart home devices among U.S. broadband households doubled from 21 percent in early 2014 to nearly 50 percent at the end of 2015, a Parks Associates news release said Friday. Safety and security continue to be the main drivers of consumer smart home interest, and once smart home products are in the home, "consumers quickly develop habits with these devices,” Parks Associates President Stuart Sikes said. Usage varies by product, but 40-50 percent of most safety and security device owners control or monitor their systems daily, Sikes said. Age and income are key demographics in the early adopter market, Sikes said. "Mass-market advertising with a clear call-to-action, prompt installation, and service delivery will help speed up the market adoption rate of smart devices." Some 23 percent of U.S. smartphone owners own a smart home device, and more than three-fourths of those consumers use a mobile device at least once a month to control their smart home devices, Parks said.

The Thread Group released OpenThread Wednesday to make technology at the heart of Nest products more broadly available to smart home device and product developers. “As more silicon providers adopt Thread, manufacturers will have the option of using a proven networking technology rather than creating their own, and consumers will have a growing selection of secure and reliable connected products to choose from,” the company said. Thread connects products in and around the home into low-power, wireless mesh networks and “makes it possible for devices to simply, securely, and reliably connect to each other and to the cloud,” said Greg Hu, head of Nest Platform and Works with Nest. As an IPv6 networking protocol built on open standards, Thread allows existing 802.15.4 wireless devices on the market to be updated to run over the network, Hu said. NPD analyst Stephen Baker was cautious on the news, calling it “better than before” for the standardless smart home market but “still not tremendous.” It’s still early in the smart home industry and “the progression towards having everything work together will take a while,” he said. The relatively low cost of smart home products makes it easy for consumers to “replace things that don’t play nicely with whatever ends up being the premium linking technologies,” Baker said. A concern, though, is how the release of OpenThread will affect wireless technology issues that could “delay implementation and consumer sales pickup.” Thread is backed by 230 companies including ARM, Big Ass Solutions, Nest Labs, NXP Semiconductors, Osram, Qualcomm, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Silicon Labs, Somfy, Tyco and Yale Security. Thirty products have been submitted for Thread certification and, in addition to Nest products, several devices including Google’s OnHub router are shipping with Thread-ready radios, Thread said. Existing application protocols and IoT platforms including Nest Weave and ZigBee can run over Thread networks for interoperable, end-to-end connectivity, it said. The initial version of OpenThread is being distributed by Nest on GitHub. OpenThread will be demo'd in the Nest Sandbox at Google I/O May 18-20 in Mountain View, California.

Broadband adoption will reach 84 percent of U.S. households this year, up from 50 percent in 2006, said a Parks Associates report Wednesday, while ownership of smart home products grew from 16 percent to 19 percent of U.S. broadband households in the past year. Some 44 percent of households without a smart home device plan to buy one in 2016, and by 2020 half of North American broadband households will be smart homes, it said. "Adoption of the connected lifestyle continues to expand” as supporting technologies mature and consumers better understand the value of connected devices, said analyst Brad Russell. Increased access to fixed and mobile broadband and improved interoperability between “collaborative, though fragmented" communications networks will facilitate smart home adoption, he said. Russell cited efforts by big players including Amazon, Apple and Facebook and said their leadership positions and ecosystems will “help accelerate growth in established categories and emerging technologies such as wearables, smart fabrics, and virtual and augmented reality."

Nortek said it’s expanding its reach of 2GIG-branded home security and control systems to global markets. Citing MarketsandMarkets data forecasting a $59 billion smart home market by 2020, Nortek sees energy efficient solutions and home security systems as primary smart home drivers. Global markets can “look to our domestic success,” said Duane Paulson, vice president-product/market development, Nortek Security & Control group, saying 3 million 2GIG systems have been installed in the U.S. and Canada. Nortek inked a deal with Pronet in Turkey for distribution of security and home control systems under the Pronet Plus brand for residential and light commercial security, control and energy management systems. Nortek has also launched 2GIG in Australia and New Zealand through security distributors Q Security and Chubb, Paulson said. In Latin America, Nortek received NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) certification for Mexico, which accelerated distribution efforts and opportunities in Columbia and other Latin American countries, he said.

Nokia joined the Z-Wave Alliance to advance its smart home business strategy, said the alliance Tuesday, and it implemented Z-Wave in its latest generation of smart home gateway products. “Interoperability is key” to realizing the full potential of the smart home, said Leopold Diouf, Nokia general manager-digital home. Being able to leverage the Z-Wave Alliance’s certification program and work with other certified Z-Wave vendors will support Nokia’s ability to deliver “a robust offering," Diouf said. Alliance membership has grown 25 percent membership in the past year to almost 400 members, it said.

Vivint Smart Home received $100 million in equity backing from Solamere Capital and tech investor/PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, it said Wednesday. Vivint has a customer base of more than a million and annual revenue topping $650 million, it said. The company’s Vivint Sky platform includes integrated smart door locks, a thermostat, cameras, doorbell camera, cloud storage and various sensors, and it integrates with the Nest Learning Thermostat and Amazon Echo, it said. Vivint CEO Todd Pedersen called the investment a “validation” of Vivint’s business and the smart home industry.

The Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands announced smart appliances Thursday that allow users to monitor appliance status via mobile app. The Kenmore Elite Smart Room Connected Air Conditioner allows consumers to set schedules from the Kenmore AC app, and the Kenmore Smart Control app lets homeowners monitor and adjust home water temperature and be alerted to leaks, the brand said. Consumers can adjust salt levels and water usage of a Kenmore Elite Smart Hybrid water softener while also detecting leaks via the Kenmore app, the company said. The wireless-enabled Craftsman Zero Turn riding mower connects to a smartphone or tablet, which informs owners about maintenance checks and product care via app, Craftsman said. DieHard’s Smart Charger has auto voltage detection, allowing consumers to monitor their car, boat or motorcycle’s battery health remotely with one charger for multiple 6-volt and 12-volt batteries, DieHard said.