avtech, with only 23 posts, I'll cut you some slack.

You are entitled to your opinion.

Philips, for a long time has had several groups that work on remote controls. The team out of Belgium works on the Pronto remotes. There are other teams that develop the so-called out of the box universal remotes. Unfortunately, the groups do not appear to communicate with one another but the team in Belgium does appear to be extremely interested in followthrough and a achieving a solid foundation for next generation remotes.