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BREAKTHROUGHS often beget other breakthroughs, and
The market for touch screens has grown quietly for years, both in = commercial=20 applications like restaurant point-of-sale systems, credit card = signature=20 readers or automated teller machines, and in consumer devices like = global=20 positioning systems and game platforms. But touch screens haven=92t = created much=20 excitement as the main way for people to use things like phones or = computers or=20 other consumer electronics =97 until now.
=93Apple changed everybody=92s mind about touch,=94 says Geoff =
Walker, global=20
director of product management at
In particular, Apple changed minds about what is called multitouch=20 technology. A multitouch screen is exactly what it sounds like: a screen = that=20 can accept input from multiple touches at once. If you haven=92t seen an = iPhone in=20 action, you might have seen CNN commentators zipping around the =93Magic = Wall=94=20 during election coverage; the wall uses technology developed by = Perceptive=20 Pixel, a start-up in New York.
Apple uses multitouch screens in which a slight electrical charge = reacts to=20 the human body=92s own electrical field, rather than pressure. There are = other=20 kinds of multitouch technology, but all are among the more expensive = types of=20 touch technology, industry observers say. High prices had caused = multitouch to=20 languish before the iPhone=92s introduction.
But the success of the iPhone has encouraged other companies to = explore=20 multitouch screens. It might follow that if people like using their = fingers on=20 the screen of a cellphone, they would like it even better on the bigger = displays=20 of computers. That=92s the hope of N-trig (pronounced =93intrigue=94), = an=20 eight-year-old Israeli company that makes a multitouch screen that can = be used=20 with a pen as well a finger.
The ability to work with both convinced
=93We don=92t use finger paint on our desks to write notes,=94 says = Roy Stedman, a=20 technology strategist at Dell. Mr. Stedman envisions things like using = one=20 finger to =93hold=94 a folder and another to flick e-mail messages into = it, or=20 adjusting the volume on a PC by =93twisting=94 a knob instead of mousing = over it.=20
N-trig is feeling invigorated by the iPhone. =93During the latter = part of 2006,=20 I had this success with Dell, but other manufacturers said =91Touch, we = don=92t=20 know,=92 =94 says Amihai Ben-David, the chief executive of N-trig. = Then came=20 the January 2007 announcement of the iPhone, and those same companies = started=20 calling him.
He says the company=92s screens will appear next year on a notebook =
computer, a=20
PC and a new type of phone. Just Wednesday,
Mr. Ben-David says that as costs of multitouch screens fall over the = next=20 five years, most mobile devices will shift to the screens.
But Joseph W. Deal, the president and C.E.O. of Wacom Technology, = which makes=20 touch screens and electronic input tools and recently announced its own=20 multitouch technology, issues a caution. He has been in the industry for = 15=20 years, long enough to have seen other touch technologies fail to make it = into=20 the mainstream. For multitouch to succeed, he said, =93the cost is going = to have=20 to come down substantially.=94
INDUSTRY analysts also say it might take years for multitouch = technology to=20 take hold. Even in the cellphone market, it=92s likely that touch = screens of all=20 types will be on only 30 percent of phones by 2013, according to = iSuppli, the=20 market researcher.
Roger L. Kay, president of the technology researcher Endpoint = Technologies=20 Associates, says he thinks that perhaps 10 percent of mobile computing = devices=20 will have touch screens by then, about one-third multitouch. He says = that touch=20 as a general-purpose technology =93is still in its infancy.=94
The problem isn=92t doubts about the hardware, once costs drop. = Instead, says=20 John Jacobs, director of notebook market research at DisplaySearch, = it=92s a lack=20 of software designed to work well with touch. For instance, few = applications are=20 written to support multitouch, he says.
That could change if Microsoft=20 delivers on multitouch technology that it has demonstrated and says will = be in=20 Windows 7, the next version of Windows, due in 2010. Such a move could = galvanize=20 software developers. Microsoft might also be able to spearhead a = software=20 standard that makes it easier for touch-enabled applications to work on = the=20 myriad kinds of touch technology.
In the meantime, some specialized consumer applications are likely to = adopt=20 multitouch technology, like casino gambling and other games. Imagine = moving=20 checkers or Scrabble tiles on a screen with your fingers.
Such applications may help touch technology overcome a classic=20 chicken-and-egg problem. =93A lot of people don=92t realize they want it = until they=20 use it,=94 Mr. Stedman says.
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