Honeycomb Android 3.0 tablets coming with stylus at CES 2011?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 23 December 2010 00:14

Your IT - Mobility

In the quest to be 'different' from Apple, it looks like N-Trig's 'Pen and Multi-Touch' technology will see Android OS tablets able to work with finger tips through its capacitive screen, while also letting users have the accuracy that only a stylus can truly bring - will the iPad 2 offer the same?

N-Trig, the company that powers many of the capacitive multi-touch screens on Windows 7 tablets, while also allowing the traditional stylus that Windows tablets have always offered, has just announced the technology is coming to Android.

The technology is called 'DuoSense', and N-Trig says that its 'DuoSense solution will be integrated in a number of Android slates due to be launched in 2011", and is also calling its technology the "N-trig Digital Pencil".

Surely this is a clear pointer to Android 'Honeycomb' OS 3.0 tablets coming with this technology as early as CES 2011 when a stack of new Android OS tablets will be launched, and it's very likely to be installed in Motorola's tablet, which it pre-launched via a YouTube teaser video earlier this week.

N-Trig's press release says its 'DuoSense technology expands developer creativity and consumer connection on slates', and says that DuoSense is a 'pen and projected capacitive multi-touch solution enabled over a single digitizer'.

Unless Apple includes similar technology in the iPad 2, the finger and stylus combo will be a major differentiator between Android OS 3.0 and iOS 4.2.1, or iOS 5.0, and seeing as Android OS 3.0 promises to be a really snazzy tablet-optimised OS, it be a real factor in Android tablet popularity.

Of course we're all yet to see just how nicely the technology works, whether it offers pressure sensitivity or not, and how much cost is adds to the final tablet price, but N-Trig has been in the touch-screen and stylus digitiser business for years now, so it's unlikely to be a dog.

N-Trig's press release states that: 'Android is increasingly becoming the operating system of choice for the fast expanding slate and mobile PC segment.'

The statement and a comment from N-Trig's CEO continues on page two, please read on!