I held off buying an expensive programmable remote like an MX-3000 thinking that there would be a cheaper and easier remote to program. The iPhone / iTouch presents a cheap and capable platform that has far greater potential than most if not all of the existing remotes although I haven't seen one with a RF adapter yet. There will soon be a $50 slick looking IR adapter for the iPhone / iTouch devices (
http://l5technology.com/). In my case I have 3 daisy chained 400 disk Kenwood changers in need of consumate solution. I bought the DMX software which is currently tied to the MX-3000. It has masterfully added changer control to a limited device whose market life is limited. Rather than replace it with the expected "cheaper and better" model Universal has chosen to go up market which may prove to be a mistake.
I don't want to trivialize the effort to port the DMX application to the Apple device(s) but I would expect a clean sheet effort benefitting from the experience of developing the UI (it uses DVD Profiler for disk information) on a device which is much easier to program and contains much more memory could be done in a straightforward manner. The cost of a 16g iTouch is half the price of the MX-3000.
As it is the Apple device has two markets as a unversall remote: the changer market and as an intelligent universal remote such as the Harmony remote. Due to the power of the Apple devices and their 2-way communication the Harmony "magic" could be done without the use of a PC.
Soon adapters will be available with RF and IR which will allow programmers to create remotes with more capability than any existing programmable remote. I expect the expensive programmable remotes of today will soon be as out of date as a Zenith ultrasonic remotes which whistled to establish contact with the TV. This doesn't mean that AMX will go out of business just that they may get out of the hardware business with respect to the remotes themselves. I can imagine that they will have masterful programs that will utilize the expected iSlate with its larger screen nor would I expect that AMX customers will see much of a drop in price for the install.
I'm waiting...
