Touchscreens have become an indispensable element of our everyday lives in recent years. They are a standard part of the automated teller machines at banks and the ticket vending machines at train stations, and we also find them on our copiers, fax machines, and other office equipment. Now they seem to be poised for another burst of growth thanks to advances in the fields of mobile phones and personal computers.
The mobile phone market is undergoing a transformation with the emergence of the iPhone and other "smartphones." By using touchscreens, makers of these devices have eliminated the need for physical keys, which allows them to offer larger displays. In addition, the touchscreens make it possible for users to operate the devices more intuitively. Thanks to these advantages, smartphones have been attracting new users at a rapid clip ever since they came out. As they offer a dramatic advance in the usability of today's increasingly complex, multifunction mobile handsets, these phones are likely to draw growing numbers of users on a global scale in the period ahead.
In the PC field, meanwhile, the arrival of Windows 7, the new operating system that went on sale last October, is serving as a major impetus for the spread of touchscreens. The key point is the "multitouch" technology that is also used on smartphones. In the case of traditional touchscreens, information input is limited to touching particular spots one at a time. With multitouch, by contrast, a user can, for example, shrink a window on the screen by "grabbing" it with the thumb and forefinger and squeezing the two together or enlarge it by grabbing it and spreading thumb and forefinger apart. It allows an extremely intuitive sort of manipulation.
The population of PC users has continued to grow, including increasing numbers of seniors, and it is becoming difficult for ordinary users to master all the evermore complex and advanced functions that computers offer. It has thus become increasingly important to provide them with ways of using their PCs intuitively without having to wade through a thick manual. In this context, it seems quite possible that PCs equipped with multitouch-capable touchscreen displays will spread at an explosive rate from now on.
That is not to say that everybody is optimistic about the future of the touchscreen market. Some people point out that multitouch is still a very young technology and suggest that demand may turn flat once the first round of early adopters have made their purchases. And there are questions about how far demand is likely to spread beyond the fields of smartphones and PCs.
The key to the expansion of the market for touchscreens may well lie in the area of software development. It seems likely that the crucial question will be whether developers can achieve advances in creating user-friendly interfaces that will allow ordinary people to tap the functionality of devices intuitively without having to check a manual for detailed instructions on how to perform particular operations.
Will the touchscreen industry enjoy explosive growth in the near future, as many hope? Or will it end up marking time, as some fear? The answer may depend on how successful software and product development teams are in their efforts to come out with devices that will appeal to consumers as soon as they are launched. Initial reactions are likely to have a major impact on subsequent results.
(Eiki Tagami)
