Philips Pronto division closed down

[scene]

Maybe I missed this on the WHF news, but I've just seen that Philips has announced that it has closed the division responsible for its Pronto range of controllers and will stop making the controllers, and any associated hardware & software. Apparently this follows on from an unsuccessful attempt to sell the division. This was immediate from the announcement on 1/11/10.
Maybe the iPhone and iPad have cut into the market too severely? Don't know, but sad and not so long since Philips announced a new Pronto at Cedia...

 

[scene]

Ah. I didn't miss it - see you now have the full story

click

 

[Frank Harvey]

scene:Maybe the iPhone and iPad have cut into the market too severely?
I'm not sure it would've affected it this quickly, but it'll definitely be a factor. We already have music streaming via Sonos as an option for a source component for demos, but we'll be expanding that very shortly with streaming lossless from a PC, controlled by an iPad. It's the way things are going.

We were having a lengthy chat in store a couple of months ago and felt that music streaming and iPod/iPad control will be the way things will go in the next few years, and thought that it will probably put an end to the higher end remote market.