Logitech’s announcement to stop production of Harmony marks an important milestone in the decline of a once-critical product category—universal remote controls. In the past two decades, the iconic clicker has tamed the plethora of remote controls on coffee tables around the world. But why would one of the most popular and objectively successful products shut down? Of course, the universal remote control often enters our living room as an accessory to the more important equipment in the home audio/video system. But in all our electronic products, the universal remote is the one we hold in our hands, because we will kindly wipe off the dust of Cheeto, and sometimes look for it in the sofa cushion. For the rapidly changing consumer electronics market itself, what does the loss of Harmony mean, and where do we go?
It's hard to imagine the era when universal remote controls didn't exist. By the early 1980s, when cable TV and VCR became permanent fixtures on wooden floor model TVs, this was such an obvious solution. We may not know at the time, but the era of set-top boxes has already begun. VCR will completely change our viewing habits, but in the early 1980s, its future was still full of controversy and uncertainty. By 1984, Sony had won a landmark lawsuit against Universal Studios, expressly granting a license to record broadcast television for playback on the fledgling VCR at any time. The future of set-top boxes and the proliferation of corresponding remote controls are now unstoppable.
By the 1980s, the TV itself will evolve into an innovative compact design, beginning to replace your grandmother’s old wooden floor model. The surge in consumer preferences for new desktop TVs and set-top boxes led to the indoor abominations known as entertainment centers in the 1980s. These are usually wooden or pressed wood display cabinets that are used to house more and more TV accessories, which will nestle in the shag carpets of American homes in the 1980s.
The term universal remote control has been adopted by Jerrold, a cable box company (subsidiary of General Instruments) used to describe cable TV remotes in the 1970s. But this is not anything we recognize today. This is a large device the size of a computer keyboard, and it is still hard-wired to the set-top box it controls. With the popularity of cable TV in the late 1970s, many of our early experiences with remote controls were specifically designed to control cable boxes installed on top of more and more TV sets. Jerrold is the remote control in your home, depending on the cable TV provider you use.
The first known commercial use of the "Universal Remote Control"
I know a certain Jerrold remote control from the early 1980s. In my father's workplaces in Canada and the United States, they were piled up. My father is an engineer for MacLean-Hunter, a Canadian cable company. In 1981, the company launched cable television services to American cities, which allowed our family to move from northern Ontario, Canada to a small city outside of Detroit, Michigan. Occasionally, I would be taken to my father’s workplace, where we watched the recently released cable-fed movie in his office, which is a cheap alternative to movie theaters. For a short time, I had to hold an early model Jerrold IR phone and browse more TV channels and dedicated pay TV movie sources (all unscrambled) than I thought. It's a far cry from the two TV channels we receive over the air in northern Ontario (one of the only two channels is French). This is a rare and unforgettable media power. We have never actually used cable TV at home. Perhaps my father’s view of cable TV at the time was an early version of the same code of ethics that Google and iOS app developers prohibited their children from accessing screen devices.
In 1994, MacLean-Hunter was acquired by Comcast, which came from Pennsylvania, the birthplace of cable television. At the time, this $1.27 billion transaction only made Comcast the third largest cable provider in the United States. But it went on to win the honor of America’s most hated No. 1 company that we all know today.
In 1980, Canadian engineer Paul Hrivnak created the first infrared remote control for a cable TV converter made by his company. But his invention penetrated into a wider market under the leadership of Philips, which was an early adopter of IR remote technology and achieved great success. Philips continued to release the first true universal remote control in 1985, sold by its subsidiary Magnavox. But in the same year that the Philips universal remote came on the market, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniac had a vision for an innovative remote control that has since influenced the technology.
After taking a place in history by creating Apple and Apple II computers, another Steve of Apple made an interesting transfer in 1985. Wozniak has a brilliant idea—and a genius for over-engineering it! According to Wozniak’s biography iWoz, the engineer is tired of his role in Apple, and this role has developed into the company’s spokesperson, and he wants to accept new creative challenges. To promote his efforts, Wozniak established a new company called CL9. The name he chose was a variation of the name of a restaurant he frequented called Cloud 9 near his home in the Summit Road area of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. Wozniak started to work to create the ultimate universal remote control that has nothing to do with the brand, the remote control that truly rules everything. The result has brought many firsts of universal remote control functions, and until today, these functions have been adopted, improved and taken for granted in universal remote control.
Wozniak's CORE UC-100 was released in 1987. It was the first fully programmable universal remote control and an invention far beyond the times. The device uses an 8-bit 6502 microprocessor with 16 buttons on the surface. The available keys are multiplied by a system called "pages", with 16 pages of buttons giving the user/programmer access to 256 unique keyable codes. Any key can be programmed to use the code of any other key and its own code, so the remote control macro was born. The device can even record or "learn" IR code patterns from other remotes. It has a serial port so users can program it from a computer. The echo of everything that Harmony brings. CORE even has a built-in clock to automatically execute commands as scheduled. Some users even report that they program the CORE remote control to turn on their AV system at a specific time instead of using an alarm clock.
CORE looked very futuristic at the time, with an LCD screen on top of its large buttons. But Wozniak’s invention lacks the user-friendliness of Apple’s products. At the same time, the price in 1987 was as high as US$300. After adjusting for inflation, it was US$710.90 in 2021. CORE UC-100 can be said to be a remote control that only engineers would like, and many people like it. Unfortunately, for Woz, this did not translate well into sales. By 1988, CL9 and its patents were sold. Although it may be considered a failure of overall sales, it is revolutionary, and the device has a small number of followers who love it very much. Today you will find discussions about users commemorating CORE on the Internet. Some people even claim that it is the main remote control for decades after their purchase. The basic design of CORE continued until the 1990s, and was renamed and repositioned as PIC-100. But the programmable universal remote control is not a consumer electronic device, but is remarketed to the medical industry to control advanced hospital equipment such as CT, MRI, and X-ray machines.
Complete CORE kit in the box
My own relationship with programmable universal remote controls began in the mid-1990s. After serving in the U.S. Army for a while, one of my early work experiences was as a road technician responsible for servicing a small electronics repair shop covering Detroit and surrounding areas. Our shop sells and provides door-to-door warranty services for the last dying TV brand called Curtis Mathes. That was the era when laser discs, rear-projection CRT monitors, and Dolby Pro Logic receivers became the height of home theater technology. I would like to say that I participated in the custom installation of complex systems, unfortunately my experience is not that leading. My most common door-to-door calls are elderly people and boring housewives who need help figuring out how to watch TV on their new entertainment system.
A common headache for customers is the surge in the number of small plastic rectangular boxes on the coffee table, and each new set-top box is close to a new large-screen TV. Sometimes the remote control is conveniently marked with tape, and each remote control is painted with a number description. I usually know from short customer descriptions that the root cause of the problem may not be an electronic device failure or even a wiring problem, but a case of the customer's learning curve. Almost every electronic product has its own remote control, but there is usually an oversized remote control in many electronic products. The customer doesn't know that this is actually a programmable universal remote control, which usually surprises the customer. I have witnessed the eyes of many elderly and TV-hungry housewives, because the equipment they already have is their solution. This handheld device can solve their remote overload problem while simplifying their system operation. I unconsciously deployed a few semi-comedy scripts to teach the concept of universal remote control to those who don't know the existence of this kind of thing. I have to admit that although I didn't get any wreaths or parades, I sometimes felt a little brave to leave the client's home.
I couldn't understand this level at the time, but I knew that the Internet and computer technology that was just starting out were colliding with traditional consumer electronics manufacturers. This will lead to a war of major display devices in American homes. However, the overlap of the original technology in the next ten years will result in a device, namely the relatively inexpensive cloud programmable universal remote control system Harmony.
The origin story of Harmony began in Mississauga, Ontario, a Canadian city next to Toronto. This is where the first Harmony remote control was developed by a company called Easy Zapper Inc in 2001. The first ever Harmony remote control promises to take ease of use to a new level while being lower than its closest competitor. Its hook is very simple, through the company website for activity-based programming. This is achieved by allowing users to associate a button with activities such as "Watch Cable TV" or "Watch DVD". Once programmed, a single button will trigger the IR code chain required by the home theater system to perform the activity. The early Harmony even provided downloadable local TV program lists through its monochrome LCD display.
As we saw in Wozniak's CORE, programming a universal remote control macro from a computer connected via a serial port was not the first time in 2001, it will become a standard operation by the end of the 90s. Harmony's online drill guide is very user-friendly, but it draws on other people's elements. A universal remote control, known for its activity-based commands, is already available, which is the result of an early Harman/Microsoft collaboration. Harman's Take Control is a programmable universal remote control released in 1998. It has many obvious similarities with Harmony. Both use a monochrome LCD touch screen and scroll wheel for navigation. Take Control is the first activity-based operation through PC programming. In fact, the remote control is so similar that it makes me wonder whether the brand name Easy Zapper Inc chose for its remote control (Harmony) was also inspired by Harman, because its overall design and user interface prompts are almost certain. Take Control is sold under the Harman/Kardon brand, priced at $350. However, the biggest player in universal remote control games at that time was Philips. By 2001, Philips had set the standard for computer programmable universal remote controls through its Pronto series, which sold for as much as US$399, with an optional charging station for US$80. Easy Zapper will get attention and Logitech's attention for its affordable $200 Harmony remote control.
You can see the G4 Tech TV Harmony commentary aired in March 2002. The comment is characterized by the public relations online gaffe of Easy Zapper, because the Harmony website went down during the live demonstration at approximately 2:39. But the host is very professional and can seamlessly get rid of technical problems without missing a beat.
Probably because the name "Easy Zapper" sounds like a brand that insomnia sufferers might learn about on late-night TV shopping shows, the company name was changed to Intrigue Technologies. The name change made its sale to Swiss/American technology company Logitech a bit dignified. In 2004, Logitech acquired Intrigue for US$29 million, when Logitech itself was expected to become the inevitable PC mouse and keyboard brand we all know today. Under Logitech's management, Harmony will continue to develop and bring innovation to the product line, maintaining a price point in the affordable mid-market, and at the same time winning the organic love that few brands can achieve.
By the 2010s, almost everyone had a smartphone, and Harmony Link (2011) brought control to smartphones and tablets. Link was eventually replaced by Harmony Home Hub (2014), which expanded compatibility with Bluetooth, IP, voice, and smart home control. Harmony's last real experimental work is its Express remote control (2019). This is a short-lived $250 voice-controlled smart remote, cooperating with Alexa, and will be discontinued in 2020. Even if the speech recognition technology is advanced enough to not require us to yell at our equipment, it seems to be a novelty and ends up being very thin. But the point of my personal use of voice technology at home is on the other side of the voice-activated device that I always listen to. They are attached to algorithms belonging to large marketing companies that automatically add every sentence of your family to a profile designed to provide digital advertising services. This is a novelty with a dark side.
Logitech said that Express aims to further simplify operations outside the touch screen interface through voice commands. However, Harmony Express was withdrawn from the market in 2020 due to the offline of the cloud interface. Logitech demonstrated good customer service by providing free refunds or product replacements for the Harmony Elite package before the Express cloud components are permanently offline. Express is a good attempt, but I think the voice-activated electronics are best placed where they might be really needed, behind the steering wheel.
Perhaps it is because of deep experience in PC peripherals, wireless remote control keyboards and other communication devices-Logitech Harmony's universal remote control is right! Although some people may have doubts about its interface and quirks, since 2004, this company with the right core competence has promoted and developed the humble universal remote control to a level where there may be no business in the first place. By 2020, the universal remote control as a category seems to be taking the road of small cars and is still in use, but its relevance has declined.
Just Google any variation of this sentence: the best "universal remote control". Almost all articles in the search results may recommend not only one, but usually several different Harmony models. Although the success of Harmony cannot be underestimated, there are signs that Logitech will part ways with Harmony one day. The dark cloud of Harmony can be traced back to 2013, when Logitech CEO stated in an interview that he planned to sell the universal remote control brand.
Despite its dominant position in the universal remote control market, Harmony is only a small part of Logitech's business. The company's CEO Bracken Darryl told Verge in 2019 that Harmony only accounts for 6% of Logitech's rapidly growing wireless keyboard business, which was valued at $139 million just a year and a half ago. This is not 6% of Logitech's total business, but 6% of part of its business, not even the largest part. According to its last quarter earnings report for the third quarter of fiscal year 21, Logitech’s wireless keyboard business has swelled to $218 million, which means that Harmony’s 6% contribution has almost certainly shrunk since that interview. Logitech's wireless keyboard category itself is only half of its gaming category, which was $436 million in the same quarter. In fact, Harmony has long been just a sprig of parsley on the edge of Logitech's veritable self-service market.
Logitech Sales (in millions) 3rd quarter of fiscal year 21
As Logitech stopped producing Harmony, the brand, IP, and patents are still held by the company. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that one day buyers will appear, even if investors regard universal remote controls as a hot growth opportunity for consumer electronics products is questionable. But Logitech has developed Harmony far beyond the scope of remotely controlled mobile phones, so there may be room for further growth or integration with other systems. The motivation of potential Harmony buyers may involve bringing their technology and brand into a system with a vision for future development. They say you can't buy love. Given that many dedicated online communities have expressed an organic love for Harmony, it may still be possible to buy brand love from Logitech.
Announcement from Logitech Blog on April 9th:
"Although Harmony remotes are now and continue to be available through various retailers, Logitech will no longer produce Harmony remotes in the future... We do not expect this announcement to have an impact on our customers. We plan to support our Harmony community And new Harmony customers, including access to our software and applications to set up and manage your remote. We also plan to continue to update the platform and add devices to our Harmony database. Customer and warranty support will continue to be provided."
Logitech's answer to our key questions:
"How long will your service and support really last? Our goal is to keep the service running as long as the customer uses it."
More than three months after the announcement on April 9, Harmony products can still be found online. For those who already own Harmony or who are still interested in it despite the risk of losing support, this may be your last chance. Current users who like their Harmony may want to reserve for the future. However, if you are considering joining for the first time, you already know that this is a risk. At the time of writing, BestBuy.com can still buy them online, but the bad news is that you will have to pay some extra. BestBuy's Harmony Elite system, including Harmony Hub and remote mobile phones, appeared to be a permanent sale last year, with discounts ranging from US$50 to US$80. But you will never find that sales price anymore.
Last year's BestBuy.com sales price
BestBuy.com sales price has been cancelled in May 2021
But how long will Logitech maintain key cloud components to prevent our Harmony remote from becoming another derivative of the tired walking dead?
So far, Logitech has not provided an absolute timetable. It can be assumed that when a customer purchases a product, they expect to have access to their online tools during a reasonable product life cycle. In order to avoid civil lawsuits or class actions, Logitech may want to keep its Harmony cloud components available, rather than any explanation of what is reasonably expected. But this is not necessarily why Logitech will do the right thing by keeping MyHarmony.com alive for a long time to come. Despite Harmony Link and Express, the company has a reputation for keeping traditional product cloud support online.
Harmony Link users were angry at the end of 2017, when Logitech announced that it would suspend all services of the product because it was moving to a new product called Home Hub. Just a day after Ides in March 2018, the knife was stabbed into the back of Harmony Link users. Logitech ended its cloud support that day, turning the ubiquitous Harmony Link into a brick in the shape of a hockey puck-and strongly opposed it! There are so many rumors of class actions that Logitech has banned the term "class action" on its own forum.
Realizing the shame of Logitech, the head of Harmony at the time, Rory Dooley said:
"This is an honest mistake, my fault. We have to do the right thing for our customers, and do the right thing."
Finally, Harmony provides a new Harmony Home Hub for free to anyone who owns Harmony Link. But Link is a special case. A date is set for the date when Link goes offline and replaced by the new product Harmony Hub. According to Logitech, the motivation for setting a hard shutdown date is because the technology certificate license is about to expire and Harmony has no intention of renewing it. Instead, Logitech hopes to focus resources on its new Hub platform. In this case, Harmony perfectly executed the classic three-step process of brand reputation crisis: admit the mistake, apologize, and overcompensate the customer.
My personal experience with the old Logitech product that relies on the cloud is its media streaming Squeezebox. I fell in love with the original Squeezebox early on when it was created by Slim Devices. Logitech acquired Slim Devices in 2006, when my own department was several years old. Logitech will continue to support the original Slim Devices models for a long time after the release of subsequent improved versions.
Squeezebox is a godsend in the early digital streaming era. In an era when Keanu Reeves is still called Neo or Ted by moviegoers, Squeezebox can play my locally stored music collection, Internet radio, and a young and innovative streaming music service called Pandora. In that era, digital music streaming was flooded with walled gardens of restrictive licensing, DRM, and brand ecosystems.
Long after the original Squeezebox was replaced, I am still getting firmware updates to be compatible with more radio stations and music applications. I finally gave up Squeezebox in the 2010s. However, many years after the production line was completely discontinued in 2012, the Squeezebox cloud components remained intact. Today, you can still visit MySqueezebox.com and see Logitech hosting everything you need to use Squeezebox. Opening MySqueezebox.com is a virtual journey into a bygone era, like visiting a fully functional digital Smithsonian museum.
My opinion is that Harmony will continue to operate for a long time to come. But what's next? For the remote control, there are of course other options. We wrote an article about SmartHome all-in-one remote control in 2019, which includes some options for controlling the audio system. If I create this article today, in addition to Caavo Control Center and other options, I will also add SofaBaton and Qorvo. Dedicated universal remote controls may remain an underserved niche market for some time.
The decline of universal remote control is undoubtedly the result of audio/video multi-streaming. The growth of streaming video, smart TVs, and cord cutting have all led to fewer source-end devices that need to be controlled. The era of set-top boxes is coming to an end. The new function of using HDMI two-way communication (such as CEC, ARC/eARC) makes the wiring of the AV system easier, and allows users to control the two most important functions from a remote control, on/off and volume. At the low end, this will be sufficient control for ordinary AV users who are satisfied with smart TVs and sound bars. Of course, the high-end is also equipped with a full-featured smart home automation system, which can provide professional installation. Sadly, it is the people in our mid-market. They do not seek smart home automation, but still use optical discs and component audio systems. These are the few people who cannot be satisfied. Logitech has decided that the universal remote control market is too small to continue. This is a surprising conclusion, if not a heartbreaking conclusion, from a company that has really done it. Harmony has discovered the unreal sweet spot between ease of setup, reliability, deep device database, and relatively low cost.
Many of us grew up with a remote control and can reliably determine our personal history. The remote control exists in our lives at any given time. Programmable universal remote control is a tragic story of rise and fall, different from some ancient civilizations. This is tragic, because the people closest to perfect technology may be too perfect for our imperfect world.
Wayde is a technical writer and content marketing consultant at the Waterloo Technology Center in Ontario, Canada, and the editor of Audioholics.com. As you would expect from a Canadian, he is a big fan of hockey. Wade is also a U.S. Army veteran, but his favorite title is just "Dad".
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