The remote control only has two buttons left. Is Apple going to go crazy again?

Recently, according to a report by The New York Times, people familiar with the matter revealed that Apple's new generation of Apple TV set-top box will use a new remote control to improve the user's operating experience through the touchpad. The new remote control will still retain two physical buttons, which may represent "menu" and "play/pause" respectively.

Judging from the products Apple has released in the past, each launch has brought considerable shock to the industry, and some have even led the development of the industry. For example, the simple 7-button remote control that Apple previously launched has brought important changes to the field of smart TV control. Internet companies such as Xiaomi and LeTV have followed suit.

Apple's lead in remote control may be in vain

As we all know, Apple has strong technical support, which allows some conceptual designs to quickly become reality, and the extremely simple design style has always been Apple's product concept. This latest remote control may surprise users and provide some reference for the future development of remote controls.

If the leak is true, Apple will take "simplification" to the extreme this time. Compared with the four-way control buttons used in the previous three generations of Apple TV, the touchpad design will solve the problem of the TV remote control's inability to operate accurately, making user operations more free and flexible.

For TV remote controls, turning the TV on and off, changing channels, adjusting the volume, etc. are all "brainless" operations. Users do not need to operate them as complicatedly as on mobile phones or PCs, but can obtain information in the simplest and most comfortable way.

The product launched by Apple this time can be said to be very bold and novel in concept, but simplicity does not mean practicality. Being too simple can easily limit functional applications. Whether the convenience of the new Apple TV remote control meets the standards remains to be discussed.

There are many kinds of remote controls available on the market, including smart remote controls, voice control, somatosensory control and multi-screen collaborative control. Wang Qin, CEO of Feizhi Game Center, learned that keyboard and touchpad remote controls have already appeared in the domestic market, but users do not accept them and they have not been widely popularized. For the future development of remote controls, touchpads or keyboards are considered to be expanded supporting functions and it is difficult to replace existing remote controls for popularization.

Make appropriate additions and subtractions to the remote control

Judging from user usage, traditional remote controls are still more convenient for operations such as changing channels and adjusting volume. Precisely for this reason, some manufacturers now equip their new products with two remote controls, one is a traditional remote control that focuses on simple operations, and the other is a smart remote control that is more inclined towards smart applications.

However, from the long-term development of remote controls, users are constantly pursuing intelligent and simplified operating methods. It is obviously very inconvenient to equip the remote control with two control peripherals, and it becomes necessary to add or subtract the remote control.

By doing subtraction on the remote control, unnecessary buttons on traditional remote controls are eliminated, and with the intelligent function control, traditional operation buttons are simplified as much as possible, similar to the popular 7-button remote control.

After subtraction, we need to add some more. For powerful smart TVs, games and entertainment all require remote control peripherals. Currently, the hot smart TV games have become the focus of the industry. User demand leads the development of products. It is naturally necessary to cooperate with appropriate control peripherals. More and more manufacturers are beginning to equip the remote control with handle buttons and somatosensory control functions. Integrating the game handle into the remote control has continuously expanded the functions of the remote control.

With the iteration and update of smart TVs, remote controls will still have strong plasticity in the future. Excellent foreign concepts may be worth referring to. Major TV manufacturers are also working hard to innovate on some technical issues, and functions such as voice control and gesture control are gradually maturing.

As to whether traditional remote controls will really disappear completely in the future, it depends on technological development, and the rest will be decided by the market and consumers.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.