Ericsson has showed off a prototype of its Android-based IPTV Remote Control, which allows users to control multiple TVs at their homes as well as other electrical appliances such as heating system and air conditioning. The prototype comes with a 10-inch touchscreen, a front facing camera and speakers. It also works as a mobile phone and has the ability to surf the Internet, according to the Swedish company yesterday at Mobile World Congress.

The camera serves as a video conferencing camera, displaying the image of the person in the conference session on a television, according to Ericsson’s official.

What unique about this IPTV Remote Control prototype is that we could classify content into group of icons, so sports or news have their own groups. You just need to drag and drop one of the icons to the top of the remote to start showing a program on the TV. This works the same with music. Additionally, the device also works as TV by itself and the integration with social networks is possible.

Ericsson chose to use Android as their IPTV Remote platform because of the operating system’s openness and the large community that can help on the development of the product. If Windows were chosen, then Ericsson will have to spend their valuable time on hardening the remote security.

The remote control is expected to be shipped this year. But it will not be sold in normal stores, instead Ericsson is looking forward for collabration with telecommunication providers to sell the remote. One of the reasons Ericsson decided to showcase the IPTV Remote Control was so that it could get operators interest to get help with the final stages of the product development. As in the end, the operatos will be the one to decide what kind of services that should work with the device.