By Damian Koh
27/06/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62024784,00.htm

Is the technology touch and go, or are we finally stepping into the world of Minority Report?

The Apple iPhone debuts on June 29 in the US.

Remember the scene where John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, used his hands to control a series of information on a translucent screen in Minority Report? Back in 2002 when Steven Spielberg directed the movie, that was science fiction. But what was reel may soon be real with the recent Apple iPhone and Microsoft Surface buzz.

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".

The cultural element
But there are also drawbacks, Choong added.

"Capacitive displays are currently more costly than resistive displays to produce, although this difference will go down as more devices are manufactured.

"More critically for Asian consumers, capacitive displays can register finger strokes but not stylus input. This makes it especially challenging for precision control. Users of the LG Prada Phone, for instance, have talked about the difficulties in manipulating the scroll bars."

At HTC's MAGIC (Mobility Advancement Group and Innovation Center) Labs, John Wang, chief innovation wizard, told us at a recent launch for the Touch that text is one of the most culturally sensitive elements in a mobile phone.

The same thought was echoed by Choong. "I'm not sure how writing a 15-stroke Chinese character with your index finger will work out on a mobile device. I do, however, expect to see a mix of interfaces and form factor combinations. For instance, a device with both a multitouch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard can overcome some of these limitations."

In the same space is Microsoft's Surface which could propel us into the future of multitouch applications. But would it be possible to shrink the capabilities of Surface to fit into a mobile device? Apparently not, due to a different kind of technology used, a Microsoft spokesperson said.

"Using current technology, this would not be feasible as the Surface uses a projection and camera system to sense activity. Our form factor allows for multitouch, multiuser and object recognition. A mobile solution, while gaining mobility, would be limited in delivering those other capabilities."

It's not difficult to take the Surface idea and put it into Zunes or other Windows Mobile devices and perhaps even UMPCs. However, Microsoft is currently focused only on bringing the Surface into public spaces and it has no future plans to speak of now.

What happened to Palm?
While the whole world is buzzing about multitouch devices, the rumor mill has been churning out information that Palm may be releasing a non-touchscreen version of the Treo (codenamed Gandolf) running on Windows Mobile 6 Standard.

Though the TouchFLO feature is very cool, the real reason to get the Touch is because of its stylish and compact design.

While Cripps admits he hasn't heard about the Palm Gandolf, "I suspect a non-touchscreen Palm, if it has a QWERTY, could be a reaction to devices such as BlackBerry and the Motorola Q which feature a QWERTY but no touchscreen. If so, then it must be that Palm perceives a demand for such devices that it would like to take advantage of".

Palm was successful back in the days when the Palm Pilot allowed users to enter text with a stylus with its Graffiti system. Even when the company released its Treo smart phones with a QWERTY keyboard, the touchscreen remained.

If the rumor mill is true, what would this mean for Palm?

Palm, as usual, has declined to comment about its future product lineup.

So who is right?

"I would expect them [phones with keypads and touchscreen handsets] to co-exist, yes" Cripps noted.

"Apart from anything else, different people have different preferences when it comes to device form factor and functionality. Multitouch devices will also tend toward the more expensive end of the market. As far as different cultures are concerned, we have already seen high interest in touchscreens from Chinese-speaking markets where they see better use of Chinese characters.

"There could well prove to be demographics that prefer the multitouch approach but to be honest I think we'll have to wait and see."

And that is what Asia will be doing as the earliest multitouch mobile device, the iPhone, is expected to arrive here only in 2008. The Apple phone hits the US market on June 29, exclusive to AT&T.