Multi-Touch Technology is Beginning to Mature

Over the past month, ARC has been running an online survey on multi-touch technology for operator panels.   The survey will remain open for a few days, and you can still participate here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ARC_multitouch).   We received feedback from many well-known experts in this field, and the current results mirror their expertise. While the survey addresses many issues, such as potential growth and a view on technology, where the answers surprised us (there are significant number of players expecting high double digit growth).
According to our 50 plus participants, multi-touch technology is somewhere between the phase of early adoption and gaining acceptance in the market. Only a small share think that the technology is already mature, while under one fifth of the participants see it as in R&D and beta-testing.  This fits the ARC view of the market.

Indeed, some of the technology itself is already mature and the technology is able to handle the tasks of the OEMs and end users. However, the hurdles remain the usage in the field, where clear use cases often lack.  Asking the participants about case studies, most report zoom and pinch applications, which are dual touch.

 

What is somehow contradicting are the answers about the technology used for multi touch and the maturity of the technology.  There are more possibilities out there than capacitive and resistive touch, and some suppliers see potential in LED matrix technology or infrared based multi touch.

ARC Advisory Group will continue to run this survey for a few more days.    In case you are interested in receiving the full and final results for free, please join the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ARC_multitouch.