The Future of Touch Computing

When AT&T coined the marketing phrase “Reach out and touch someone” back in the 1980s, it probably had no notion of the future poignancy of such a slogan. Fast-forward to 2007, when AT&T’s wireless division released the Apple iPhone, the first mobile phone to offer a user interface with multitouch technology. Between June 2007 and November 2008, Apple sold more than 10 million of them. Why? Because people loved the touch interface.

Apple’s success sparked a frenzy of development for touch-enabled phones, with such heavy hitters as HTC, LG, RIM, and Samsung jumping on the bandwagon. It’s easy to see why as many as 28 percent of all phones will incorporate touchscreen technology by 2013, according to Strategy Analytics. With limited real estate, handset makers can offer customizable interfaces for different applications on phones without weighing down the design with too many mechanical buttons.

But are touchscreens as viable on laptops? It’s not a good sign when Steve Jobs says that “it hasn’t made a lot of sense to us.” Apple’s CEO uttered these words during the October 2008 launch of the latest MacBooks, which have multitouch-enabled touchpads.

The question for notebook manufacturers isn’t whether touch is cool. It’s whether touch on a larger canvas is practical. And whether consumers will be willing to pay more for the novelty.

A Better Take On Touch

Although it might seem like Apple invented the technology, touch computing has been available on handheld devices for years. But to make touch palatable for consumers, Apple had to abandon older technologies—namely, resistive touch, which can be found in ATMs (and your PDA from 2002).

Resistive touch comprises two thin layers, which, when pressed together, create a short circuit. Although far from cutting-edge, manufacturers still use resistive touch because it’s inexpensive, and users can employ either their finger or a blunt object, such as a stylus, to interact with the screen. They can even touch it while wearing gloves.

Capacitive touch has one layer and uses the electrical properties in users’ fingers to complete commands. Because capacitive screens have only one layer, they’re brighter than resistive ones. More important, they track the movement of a finger, so users can, say, swipe the screen to scroll through Web pages. They’re also more accurate than resistive screens, which often leave users furiously jabbing at the display.

Capacitive touch should not be confused with multitouch, the type of user experience that made the iPhone a runaway hit. With multitouch, users can make gestures using multiple fingers (e.g., spreading two fingers apart on the screen to zoom in). In other words, multitouch is enabled by capacitive touch, but not all capacitive touchscreen devices employ multitouch technology (such as the T-Mobile G1).

The industry consensus is that capacitive technology, though more expensive, trounces resistive, at least in mobile tech. “Capacitive is the most robust for repetitive tasks like a keypad,” said Rick Sizemore, president and founder of MultiMedia Intelligence. “Resistive works more like a pressure sensor. That means you can damage the device.”