After Steve Jobs: What we can learn from the Nest thermostat

The central question about Apple these days is what it will become without Steve Jobs’s passionate conviction and daily direction in the design of the company’s products and services.

There may be some clues in something interesting that happened this week: a new company led by Apple’s former iPod/iPhone leader introduced a thermostat for the 21st century. It’s a simple and beautiful expression that takes on the complex function of managing your home environment.

If the people who embody Apple’s DNA can produce this kind of product, what does it say about Apple’s ability to produce the most compelling products in the world without Steve Jobs’s guiding hand?

LUNAR’s John Edson writes about Silicon Valley startup Nest and Apple’s design legacy in Fast Company’s Co.Design blog. Read his post here.