| Executive Summary | | | | market share. |
| This white paper discusses the evolution of portable | | | | Further evolution in semiconductors, LCDs, batteries, |
| consumer electronics from the Electronic Organizer to | | | | and material technology brought remarkable products |
| Apple’s iPhone. | | | | to the market. Motorola’s 2004 Razr is a prime |
| | | | example. The impossibly slim, stylish design was an |
| In 1997, the Motorola Startac and PalmPilot were state | | | | instant success, selling over 50 million units in just two |
| of the art consumer electronics for the mobile | | | | years, and is still popular. Still, the Razr was a poor |
| professional. They were superb tools for staying in | | | | substitute for calendar or address book applications. |
| touch with customers, managing your calendar, and | | | | Anyone trying to type a significant amount of text with |
| organizing contacts. Portable consumer electronics | | | | a phone keypad has experienced this issue. Again, |
| have improved tremendously over the years. This | | | | user interface was the limiting factor for portable |
| document describes the various developments in the | | | | device functionality. Meanwhile, cell phone |
| field of touchscreen enabled consumer electronics. | | | | manufacturers were still testing the market with |
| Many Portable Information Managers or Electronic | | | | various user interfaces. Palm continued to incorporate |
| Organizers were developed in the 1980s, but did not | | | | resistive touchscreens with their Tungsten, Zire, and |
| achieve mass market acceptance. Problematic user | | | | Treo models. The Sony Ericsson P800 (2002), |
| interfaces were the main issue. Apple CEO John | | | | Motorola A780 (2003), BENQ P30 (2004), and |
| Sculley introduced the Newton “Personal Digital | | | | AT&T 8525 (2006) also tried resistive |
| Assistant” at CES in 1992, but its high price, | | | | touchscreens. Swedish manufacturer Neonode |
| somewhat large size, and troublesome handwriting | | | | launched the N1 phone in 2004 with an IR optical |
| recognition limited sales. Finally, in 1996 US Robotics | | | | touchscreen. Each phone had its high points, but neither |
| released the first PalmPilot PDA. It combined a | | | | significantly changed the industry. In late 2006, LG |
| touchscreen, handwriting recognition, and intuitive user | | | | released their first touchscreen phone, the Prada. |
| interface in a small form factor with excellent battery | | | | Originally available in tri-band GSM for the European |
| life. This first successful implementation of a PDA | | | | market, the Prada had a unique industrial design |
| demonstrated the true utility of touchscreens in | | | | enabled by capacitive touchscreen technology. Known |
| portable consumer electronics. Resistive touchscreens | | | | as “Projected Capacitive”, this type of |
| used on the PalmPilot still had their issues. The screen | | | | touchscreen uses indium-tin-oxide (ITO) transparent |
| would sometimes lose alignment and not recognize | | | | metallic sensing elements deposited on a glass or film |
| touch positions correctly, requiring a recalibration. | | | | substrate. The result is a very rigid, scratch resistant, |
| Display brightness was dimmed by the touchscreen | | | | highly transparent touchscreen with excellent accuracy |
| transparency. Also, the screen could suffer failures | | | | and no need for calibration. In addition, projected |
| over time due to mechanical flexing of the top layer. | | | | capacitive technology also enables multi-touch, an |
| Some companies approached the user interface | | | | important feature for portable electronics user |
| problem from other angles, and succeeded. Research | | | | interfaces. Consumer demand for this new “look |
| In Motion released their BlackBerry 850 in 1998. It was | | | | and feel” was clear, with LG selling over 800,000 |
| a unique combination of wireless connected email with | | | | Prada phones in 2007. In June 2007, Apple entered the |
| built-in PDA functionality. The keyboard was small, but | | | | smart phone market with their much anticipated |
| very ergonomic and ideal for quickly typing email. The | | | | iPhone. The instantly recognizable sleek and minimalist |
| operating system and applications were well designed, | | | | industrial design was realized with capacitive |
| with excellent integration and usability. In fact, RIMs | | | | touchscreen technology. Apple showcased the true |
| email application was licensed for by Nokia, Motorola, | | | | possibilities for touchscreen enabled consumer |
| Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, HTC, and QTeck | | | | electronics with their highly integrated suite of |
| for their own cell phone designs. RIM went on to enter | | | | applications. The entire front surface of the device |
| the handset market with a portfolio of increasingly | | | | became a reconfigurable, context sensitive, multi-touch |
| sophisticated smart phones, and eventually claim the #1 | | | | user interface. |