Home control is key to the future of Logitech’s...

Home control is key to the future of Logitech’s Harmony remote control line, David Lubinsky, senior product manager, told us on a pre-holiday season walkthrough of the company’s 2014 lineup in New York Thursday. Playing supporting roles on display with Logitech’s existing lineup of premium remotes -- the Harmony Ultimate ($349) and Harmony Smart Control ($129) -- were a Nest thermostat and Sonos Play:1 speaker, which join Philips’ Hue LED lighting system as third-party “end points” that are part of the turnaround strategy for the once-threatened product line. Logitech had the Harmony line on the block a year ago (CED July 26 p3) but pulled it back when offers were deemed too low and the higher-end remote control market reversed, with average selling prices for the category jumping 77 percent. In a survey earlier this year, 60 percent of Harmony customers said they wanted to be able to add home control to their remotes, Lubinsky said, helping to breathe new life into a category hit hard by smartphones and apps. The market research is a selling point Logitech is taking to third-party companies with the added clout of offering an installed base of “tens of millions” of Harmony remotes sold. Those remotes that aren’t Wi-Fi-enabled can become so with the addition of a Harmony remote, Lubinsky said. He wouldn’t disclose the next third-party companies Harmony plans to do business with but said logical home control category extensions could include window treatments and locks. Third-party support for home and entertainment system control is critical to success of the line, or any remote control line, because “no single company is capable of delivering the entire experience,” Lubinsky said. “The winner is the one who’s talking to everybody,” he said. Harmony has a way to go in home control to reach the number of audio/video-related devices it supports, which stands at 270,000 products from some 5,000 brands, he said.