Playing devils advocate here I would counter with how much time did Philips spend developing the RU970 with experiences learned from the RU940, the RU980 with what they learned from the RU970, the iPronto with what they learned from the 970/950/940...

...products will *ALWAYS* be improved and made cheaper and "early adopters" will always pay a premium for a product which is "cutting edge".

This happens with AV kit, computers, cars, everything and in very few situations does a manufacturer then give previous purchasers a "trade-in" against their new and improved model. For example - I bought a graphics card the other day for £39.95 that blows away the one that it replaces which cost me over £100 a year ago.

I bought a 32" LCD TV just over a week ago for about £2,000 - the picture sucks with off air broadcasts but running from my HTPC it is superb - in six months time I'm sure it will have been superceeded with a new model which is better quality and also probably substantially cheaper - should the manufacturers therefore offer me a trade in on it?

At least the issues with the iPronto have been able to be fixed by firmware updates and unfortunately I think you'll find that this is the way that things are going in general as products become ever more firmware based.


Maybe - or maybe they've been trying to sort out why a small number of iProntos have been locking up without reason.

Maybe you and I have a different outlook on things, I want a remote that is stable, reliable, works each time I pick it up and just becomes part of the furniture - I'm not worried about it having a richer function set or more bells and whistles.

Phil