Multitouch the next buzzword?Is the technology touch and go, or are we finally stepping into the world of Minority Report?
The notion of a tabletop PC already harks back five years even before Microsoft took the wraps off its Surface (codename Milan), which features a similar multitouch and gestural interface seen in the sci-fi thriller. And we don't even have to wait for a version that runs on a mobile device. The iPhone is about to make its US debut on June 29, touting the multitouch interface as the key element in the device. For the rest of Asia, we can only wait. That said, closer to home, Taiwan-based HTC, the company behind many of today's Windows Mobile smart phones, is rubbing a bit of shine off the iPhone with a new TouchFLO technology. This allows a user to operate the smart phone with a finger swipe across the handheld's screen. While not exactly a multitouch device, the HTC Touch represents another step away from the usual single-touch user interface. What's all the hype about? So did we miss something all this while? Why is the tech world getting excited over a technology that is hardly new? Some trackpads on laptops already allow us to scroll using two fingers, right? And touchscreens are everyday devices on PDAs, tablets and photo kiosks. Tony Cripps, service manger of Mobile User Experience at Ovum, believes it's the Apple hype. "If by multitouch you're referring to the use of fingers to control most of the phone's functions, then the main reason for the hype is the fact that Apple has adopted this approach for the iPhone, which has had enormous publicity," said Cripps in an email to CNET Asia. "Multitouch interfaces like the iPhone make use of capacitive touchscreen technology which has significant advantages in terms of user interface design," said Aloysius Choong, senior market analyst for IDC Asia Pacific. "Two-finger combinations on a mobile device can potentially be as intuitive as a Control-C shortcut on a computer today". |
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