Intel Invests in Touchscreens Against Apple, Samsung
Following Apple's and Samsung heavy investments in touchscreens to secure supply for smartphones and tablets, Intel decided it was time to help its partners as well.
The company has guaranteed four display suppliers an undisclosed number of unit demand from PC makers. Intel is not paying anything upfront, but will foot the bill for all screens that are not purchased by those system vendors from the entire lot. According to Bloomberg, agreements were reached with TPK, Wintek, HannsTouch and Cando. There was no information which PC makers will be able to benefit from the secured supply.
Intel's investment is different from Apple's strategy to invest into production upfront and simply buy up a certain portion of the supply. Intel's involvement is relatively low risk and very attractive for the touchscreen makers, since they will get paid for their displays whether or not they will be purchased for tablets and touchscreen PCs.
For Intel, it is critical that enough touchscreens are available to help the launch of Intel tablets and touchscreen PCs a success. With Samsung and Apple accounting for more than half of the smartphone market, and an even greater share of the tablet market, supply will become more of a challenge for those tablet and PC vendors that are not included in any secured supply agreement. It is unknown whether Microsoft has also secured touchscreens for its key Windows 8 launch partners as there are predictions that overall global supply of these devices could run short later this year.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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alidan why cant we invest in wacom like touch screens for a mobile device. i would so pay money for one.Reply -
Osmin Once again Intel is trying to save the PC industry just like the efforts they provided in designing the Ultra books. It happens when the majority of large PC makers lack the effort to challenge the Apple hardware ecosystem.Reply -
twelch82 alidanwhy cant we invest in wacom like touch screens for a mobile device. i would so pay money for one.Reply
The Wacom type screens are the only ones I really care about having on a device larger than a smartphone. I actually own an X201T with that technology, and use it daily at work for taking notes. -
boiler1990 twelch82The Wacom type screens are the only ones I really care about having on a device larger than a smartphone. I actually own an X201T with that technology, and use it daily at work for taking notes.Reply
That's why I'm looking forward to the Surface Pro. I use my iPad to take notes right now and it's mediocre due to the lack of the active digitizer. -
eddieroolz alidanwhy cant we invest in wacom like touch screens for a mobile device. i would so pay money for one.Reply
That would be very nice, probably just too expensive for mass production. -
Belardo LOL.... all this talk about supply for touch-based Windows.Reply
Then the shock when very few people are actually buying them!
Very few people are making use of touch-screen desktops. Its a gimmick for the first 1-3 weeks and then its back to the mouse. Two friends bought such things for their home. -
ChromeTusk Reply
It really depends on who uses the touchscreen and why. I personally use the mouse more often, but a quick jump to a different monitor could help. As for my kids and less tech savy friends/family, they would love the ease of touchscreens for some applications/games.9378943 said:...
Very few people are making use of touch-screen desktops. Its a gimmick for the first 1-3 weeks and then its back to the mouse. Two friends bought such things for their home. -
huron As much as Intel has been the giant in the processor market, it's nice to see them battling it out and making things more competitive in a market where they are not the dominant player.Reply
I can't complain...I think competition is a good thing. The more people fighting in the market, the better the products and prices will be (hopefully). -
tomfreak Intel should have invest in software development for driving high AI intelligent for day to day casual use & speech recognition that make heavy use of their CPU to absolute accuracy.Reply
they can easily stop the PC industry bleeding to mobile market, if Desktop computer are "Intelligent enough & have insane accurate speech recognition"
I am stilling waiting for a viable way to getting rid of Keyboard and mouse.