Here's a quick list of some other folks taking a swing at the Internet-enabled thermostat space: EnergyHub, EcoFactor, Proliphix, EcoBee, Inthrma, Suntulit, and GE's "nucleus."

Nest clearly has some cool differentiating features like "time to temp" and some interesting learning / AI technology. If it delivers on claims of 20% energy savings and they can bring the price down (that must be the plan, I'm sure) I can imagine it being broadly adopted. The challenge with thermostats is there are a few different wiring standards, so you often do need a third party to help you, which introduces a pretty big barrier to adoption. They also seem to have a strategy to lower that barrier, which is cool.

As someone who's been in the energy space for over two years now, I'm excited that Nest is bringing some much needed consumer attention our way, and I'm excited to try Nest!