“Though handset makers buy their touchscreens as components from the same select pool of suppliers, a good touchscreen experience requires more than just hardware. It requires a bit of design alchemy blending software, engineering and calibration for the perfect feel. Few smartphone makers have managed to get that balance right, say experts,” Ganapati reports. “‘If you think that no other touchscreen out there is as good as the iPhone, its not all in your head,’” says Chris Verplaetse, vice president of the Moto Development Group, a product design and development firm. ‘It’s like asking what makes a Mercedes door close like a Mercedes door and a Hyundai door close like one though they use the same steel. There’s clearly a difference.'”
“The capacitive touchscreen in Apple’s iPhone changed the game, because it’s not pressure-sensitive. Instead, this kind of technology responds to the electrical properties of your skin, not the pressure of your finger, to figure out where you’re touching the screen. For the first time, just a light tap could open an application or a flicking gesture could get the screen scrolling,” Ganapati reports. “Best of all, it seemed effortless.”
Ganapati reports, “In theory, all capacitive touchscreens should offer consumers the same experience, but they rarely do, says Andrew Hsu, a technology strategist for Synaptics, one of the biggest touchscreen component makers. ‘Capacitive touch-based handsets involve a lot of development work and quite a bit of engineering expertise in order to give them their ‘magical’ quality,’ says Hsu.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Terry K.” for the heads up.]
The same can be said for mouse pointing devices. Apple does it best, and it is because of their software technology. Apple’s mouse-tracking feels more natural and precise than the competition’s.
You’re out of your mind. The general consensus with Mac users around the world is that the mouse algorithms after os x 9 are jacked up. Too fast at low speeds and not fast enough at high speeds and broad movements. The curve is backwards friend.
Unfortunately, this sensitivity quality seems lost on the general lemming population.
The devil is in the details.
Apple will continue to dominate in this market because of their rabid obsession with the finer details. Its not good enough to slap a touch screen on a device, the other manufacturers need to go into excruciating detail otherwise their devices won’t come close.
@It’s About Time Seems that analysts and pundits are even less observant. The ouly see features that have bullet points attached to them.
One thing I’ve learned to appreciate about Apple’s screens is that you can wipe them off without activating them – unlike pressure sensitive screens… ahh.. iPhone
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The iPhone (and iPod touch) screen is like a fine California or Bordeaux wine and the others’s screens are like the wine your neighbour makes in his basement.
God is in the details.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
That’s right: The iPhone has a TOUCH screen. Some other cell phones misleadingly mention a touch screen although it should be called a press screen.
The other companies only put touch screens on their devices so that they can advertise, “Touch Screen!”
An article that describes the greatness of an Apple product posted on mdn?
This is why the frigtard pundits, bloggers and CNet / PC World message board posters drive me insane with their mindless, clueless blather about how Apple has no right to defend its patents. Of course Apple has every right to do so, and should. It took Apple years of R&D;to get the touchscreen exactly right. And some uninformed pundit or Apple hater thinks that the company should just roll over and let competitors steal the company’s ideas?
Never.
Let them build a better mousetrap. But they won’t. Buttheads.
And you know why the iPhone’s touchscreen works so well? Because Steve Jobs probably rejected lesser attempts for years.
God is in the details.
Steve Jobs focuses on details.
Therefore, Steve Jobs is God.
Just wait till Maobama forces Apple to let all phone makers use their touch screen technology–that’s Socialism for you, folks.
@Josh
Are you purposely trying to sound like a moron, or does it simply come naturally? The Republican Party activity supported for eight years a moron of a President named Bush who was warned in detail one month before 9/11 and did nothing but take a vacation. No doubt you continued to support him. Yet you are so filled with hate for Obama that you can’t see or think straight, and only want to see him fail, no matter what it does to the country. Putting ideology ahead of country is a good working definition of treason.
You make me sick.
Speaking of Josh … MDN, I call on all the MDN readers to solicit a ban on Josh and his type.
Not because of his particular political proclivities.
But on account that Josh and his type insist on hijacking the comments section that follows the articles.
It leads to the disintegration and cohesion of the conversations.
Lets face it, comments posted here at MDN are not going to solve the worlds problems … We are not playing for sheep stations (Aussie colloquialism – The phrase ‘playing for sheep stations’ has both a literal and ironic usage. Literally, it is used to encourage participants to play in a friendly and not too competitive manner.)
However, MDN Reader Feedback proves that regular posters to be either erudite and funny or ignorant and perplexing, some of the feedback is from people who know their stuff or people who know diddly-squat … but at least they are on topic.
MDN was initially and still should be a place to further our understanding of Apple Inc. and the world that Apple inhabits and maybe have a laugh, not a place to encourage and further a singularity of political artifice … by apostate or acolyte!
MDN grow some Balls!!! return to the the way it was!
Cut out the craving for “Page Hits”
Give us Apple peeps … those who have an affection, fondness, endearment, devotion, passion, appreciation, enthusiasm and penchant of and for Apple and Apple related stuff … a bipartisan site to co-operate from.
Such are my thoughts.
Maybe there’s also some patent Apple has related to the performance of touch-screens that, this time around, nobody has dared to ignore?
Software, Software, Software!
@SKY LARK,
Normally, I would agree with you. But the situation in the States is becoming so dire that right now almost any type of peaceful resistance is justified.
Peace.
software, software, software, software!
The iPhone has a better touch screen, but how much better? I’ve used the Droid for five months and I don’t have any complaints. The difference isn’t noticeable enough to make that much of a difference.
Props to Apple for having the best touch screen. Now if only the iPhone could run multiple apps.
LoL clearly trolling using banter puked out from numerous tech sites and hatrers. You obviously have no experience with the iPhone so go on acting like you know something about multitasking you fool.
You should pay attention to when his comment was made. It was made before iOS 4 was even announced. Multitasking wasn’t even integrated into the iPhone at the time.
Resistance (or is that capacitance?) is futile!
@SKY LARK:
I agree with you. Mixing tech news with politic, religion, discrimination is not what this place should be intended. MDN: Just put that any comment away from the topic, is not allowed, and banned it. It is going into politic point of view, banned it. That has nothing to do with “Free speech”. If somebody wants to bring his comments about Gov, go to a open forum with no topic, it should be thousands out there.
Apple does works on details. It is interesting that friends of mine had told me that they tried almost every other “touch phone” and the experience is bad. That is a clear example that copying is not that simple, unless you copy apple in all the aspects, which most likely will bring your costs high and you wont be able to come up with a low price device. Even with low prices, clearly people (not fans), just regular people keep buying iphone.
Now, if only 40% of iphone and ipod touch users buy the ipad (because not everybody will like it, I agree), that come up with above 6 millions sold in the first years, I do not think that is a crazy number…
MDN: please, find a way to keep the political guys away. I am a very passionate about politics, not only in USA, but around the world, but this is not the place for it: Would you stand up and start talking about Gov and Bush and Obama on Sunday at Church: Most likely no right, and the reason why: should be the same one why you should not do it here: IT just not the place for that talk.
Here are some links for Josh and others like him:
http://www.politicalforum.com/united-states/
http://www.uspoliticsonline.com/
http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/
http://www.debatepolitics.com/
http://www.topix.com/forum/us/politics
You see Josh, plenty places were you can find other that share your thoughts and you can spent your time arguing about Obama and bla bla bla bla…..
i have all the i-stuff,,, i pads, i phones, i pods, my son the apple fan-boy sent me this link…. my experience with i-stuff touch screen is not good…. i tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap ad-nausea any hardware with an i in front of it fails me nothing happens…. i loved the screens that had a hard stylus those worked… yes i use the little rubber stylus, i don’t like them, my son the fan-boy who is a doctor says i have too many calluses and keratin ok so what,,, the i-stuff touch screen fails me…. i have to connect a blu tooth keyboard to get anything done… if the i-stuff would support a mouse i would be ok… so don’t tell me how great the screen is.. it sucks for a working man….. not everybody works in an office and has their nails done every Wednesday afternoon…