T-Screen on Cusp of Competition in Consumer Electronics
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Despite the continuing circus about the iPhone's delayed domestic arrival, 2008 has been a great year for gadgets here, with people here hogging the latest products from Samsung and LG like kids in a candy shop.
Mobile phones are clearly at the center of consumer trends and Samsung's SCH-W420, nicknamed the ``Haptic Phone,'' has clearly been the handset of the year, with the company selling more than half a million units as of September.
``It is one of our top selling models, which is surprising as it is also one of our most expensive, high-end phones,'' said a Samsung spokesman.
It's not hard to understand the fevered buzz surrounding the Haptic Phones, despite their retail prices that go north of 700,000 won (about $580).
The full touch-screen handset, which eliminates the keypad by having the screen double as an input device, displays virtual buttons and icons for each task. The device is also distinctive for a tactile feedback that mimics the feeling of pressing a mechanical button when the user touches the screen, hence the name Haptic, a Greek word meaning ``to grasp, touch.''
Samsung is not the only company that has had a lot of fun with touch-screen phones. LG, Samsung's bitter industry rival, would stress it was the first of the two to bring large touch screens to the party through its Prada and Viewty handsets, both steady sellers.
Although mobile phones are clearly the biggest growth area, touch-screen technology is now being deployed in just about every electronics product conventionally used in daily life ― laptop computers, game machines, MP3 players, portable multimedia players (PMP), digital cameras and televisions.
After three decades of existence, and spending most of that time stuck with ATM machines at banks, touch screen technology finally seems to be on the verge of a renaissance.
LG is expected to release a new touch-screen phone, LG-SU100, which provides a mobile version of the ``Franklin Planner'' time management system, through SK Telecom by the end of the year. The company is also expected to release the second versions of its Prada and Viewty phones.
Mid-tier handset maker Pantech is also expected to release a full touch-screen phone this month.
``Since the arrival of the iPhone, we are seeing a strong migration from button to touch pad in the mobile area,'' said Tim Wang, product marketing manager at Synaptics, one of the world's leading providers of capacitive sensing solutions, in a news conference in Seoul Tuesday.
The California-based company, which counts Samsung, LG, Motorola, HP and Sony among its long list of clients, provides the technology for Samsung's SCH-W550, the second version of the Haptic Phone.
Synaptics, which also provided the touch-screen interface for LG's Prada and Chocolate phones and Samsung's SGH-F480, a Haptic-like phone released in Europe, plans to establish a design and engineering center for mobile solutions in Korea by the end of the year to work closer with handset vendors.
``The idea is to provide more effective support to our clients than relying on our developing process in our Santa Clara headquarters,'' said Yvonne Jang, Synaptics' manager of Korea.
``Aside from providing touch-screen modules and chip solutions, we are also providing our clients tool kits, data sheets, design guidelines and other know-how in building modules, which will allow them to use our technology in any way they want,'' she said.
Laptop computers remain Synatpics' largest revenue source, as the company has about a 65 percent market share in touch pads. However, the growth from the mobile-phone sector is evident, helping make Korea one of its fastest growing markets.
Aside of looking slim and gushingly cool, the full touch-screen handsets relying on sensor displays are actually practical in a market where people are increasingly demanding their mobile-phones work like computers.
The large screens maximize the multimedia and feature-rich applications telecom operators are working so hard to sell, while the gesture-based control makes the services easier to use.
The spread of third-generation (3G) telephony, which is all about delivering data atop of voice, is forcing electronics makers to maximize the real estate of the screens and reduce the size of keypads, buttons and input devices. Touch screens appear a reasonable solution.
``There is a demand for more sophisticated features on mobile-phones, but none of them would work if users find them hard to control and it doesn't get easier than just dragging icons with your fingers,'' said Im Soon-ok, a researcher from the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI).
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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