It's just the season to acquire some jaw-dropping touch-based innovations, writes Priyanka Joshi.
Multi-touch is the must-have feature for all digital devices this year. The craze for this spiralled after the launch of Apple iPhones and has now become all pervasive. In fact, “touch” is the new by-word for all electronics devices in the market today. The gizmos available with this feature are not only drool-worthy but also feature technology by way of Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometers, haptic feedback and so forth.
Take, for example, the new coffee-table-sized computer by Microsoft. Called the “Surface”, it is meant for hotels, casinos and retail stores, and based on multi-touch finger gestures to move digital objects such as photos, play games, and to browse. Hewlett-Packard too has developed a prototype of a similar multi-touch coffee-table computer for home use. Then there is Asus. Having bagged the prestigious Red Dot design award in 2009, the company is gearing up for a glorious run. Its Eee Top PC, an all-in-one touch-screen computer, makes computing interactive. The company has made an intelligent choice by opting for an Opera browser for easy-touch navigation that requires neither mouse nor keyboard. A confident Albert Tung, managing director, claims, “We are optimistic about making this technology popular with our potential customers in India.” The Eee Top will cost you Rs 44,000 — but imagine the glitz it can bring to your desk.
Another touch-based innovation from the same company is the Eee Keyboard PC. While it not yet commercially available, the PC will incorporate the functionality of a desktop computer with a trendy keyboard — at just under a kilogram. The gizmo can turn any LCD monitor into a fully functional PC and multimedia entertainment centre via its ultra-wide band wireless connectivity. You can also buy the Asus Eee PC T91 tablet PC complete with an 8.9-inch touch screen. The company has bundled in a TouchSuite programme here that optimises various functions. Some cool features include the ability to jot down handwritten notes that can then be “stuck” on the desktop or sent to other Eee PCs. The T91 also allows users to flip through, organise, edit, and upload photos with just a flick of their fingers. Official prices are yet to be decided, but don’t expect it to be a cheap machine. It is not for nothing that Asus aims to be one of the leading PC vendors in India by 2012.
On Apple’s MacBook Air, the touchpad allows users to move the cursor and click (like a mouse). But it can do more, using multi-touch gestures. You can rotate photos by just touching two fingers and moving the images on the screen, or you can quickly move back and forth through a series of web pages and photos by simply swiping your fingers on the touchpad. You can also shrink or expand a photo or zoom in and out on a web page by pinching the image. If you fancy these, buy an Apple MacBook Air at prices starting at Rs 95,000.
Then, there is Samsung’s latest P3 portable media player based on true haptic feedback. It boasts of an impressive three-inch TFT-LCD touch screen allowing for widescreen enjoyment of video and photos without the need for letterboxing. Ravinder Zutshi, deputy MD, Samsung India, explains: “With every command gesture, from swiping a finger across the screen to switching audio tracks to holding down a digital button for fast-forwarding a video, the P3 reacts with a variety of physical sensations for a more intimate experience.” An 8GB player is priced at Rs 11,900 and the 16GB version costs Rs 14,900, making it fairly affordable. Samsung’s digital still camera range too sports Touch 2.0 features. Zutshi explains that the NV100 Full HD digital still camera allows users to exploit commands on screen using swift finger movements. The device retails at Rs 22,990.
But it is the mobile phone market that will see the maximum number of touch devices this year — at affordable prices too. According to a report from ABI Research, Samsung and Motorola will command the bulk of this market with 33 per cent and 30 per cent shares respectively in 2009. This is based on their strong presence in Asia where 80 per cent of the world’s touch-screen phones are produced. LG’s Anil Arora, Business group and marketing head (mobile communication), says, “Our products like LG Cookie, Viewty and KS20 have appealed to all and touch-screen will be the technology that everyone will be reaching out for.”
While LG has been aggressive in launching entry-level handsets with touch-screen features, if you are looking at premium products, you may have to go to Samsung. Sunil Dutt, the company’s country head (mobile business), lists the three phones that you could buy: The Samsung Pixon, an eight megapixel camera phone, at Rs 28,750, the Samsung Omnia, at Rs 35,999 (for 8 GB), and the Samsung TouchWiz, at Rs 20,899. “The global market for touch-screens is expected to double and we too will strengthen our portfolio,” he says. Nokia with its entry-level 5800 Xpressmusic device, RIM with its Blackberry Storm and HTC with its Touch series have all pitched in too.
In San Francisco, a company called Touch Revolution is all for commercialisation of cutting-edge touch technologies. The company, which has launched some successful consumer electronics products for companies such as Apple, Sony, Sega, Microsoft, and Motorola, has designed an Android-based touch device development platform called NIMble for both consumer and commercial devices. But its founder Mark Hamblin raises a pertinent question in his blog: “What’s the point of an in-car GPS system if it’s more difficult to use than asking for directions at a gas station? How do you make this growing number of embedded electronic devices intuitive and easy to use? With great touch interfaces, of course.” You have your answer.