Nokia Touchscreen Phones to Add Tactile Feedback

Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of cell phones, announced on Monday it has licensed new touch feedback technology from haptic developer, Immersion.

Under the new long-term license, Nokia will have the right to use Immersion's VibeTonz Mobile Player technology in any of its mobile devices sold worldwide. Immersion said it will begin supplying the VibeTonz software developer's kit (SDK) to Nokia's developer community starting this month. In turn, that community will be able to create downloadable applications and future content for VibeTonz-enabled cell phones.

According to Immersion, who also makes tactile-feedback technology for game controllers and other devices, the system can provide tactile cues for mobile touch screen interfaces, as well as be used for mobile games with touch feedback.

The technology is currently used in more than 4 million LG and Samsung phones worldwide, Immersion said, and the addition of Nokia brings the number of cell phone makers to three.

With Apple's iPhone leading a new wave of touch-sensitive phones, Nokia's CTO, Tero Ojanpera, recently told Reuters that "optical sensors and touch will be the next big things."
Indeed, LG's recent Prada touch-screen cell phone already uses Immersion's vibration feature which allows for a slight vibration sensation when the touch screen's virtual keyboard is tapped, similar to what a user would get on a real keyboard.
Immersion recently said that the vibration feature will be added to 10 more cell phones with advanced touch-screen technology later this year.

With regard to the iPhone, Pekka Pohjakallio, Nokia's vice president of Nseries phones, has stated that the company felt Apple's iPhone would, in many ways, validate Nokia's push toward converged multimedia devices with its Nseries.

"I think it confirms our story," he during this year's CES. "We have been preaching the message of converged multimedia in one device, with lots of use cases and a good experience for the whole life of Nseries. And now Apple [has] come and said basically the same thing, even if they have implemented some things differently."

"It just confirms our message, and it's good to have others preaching the same message. The best company will win in the end, so I think it's good news for us. It's not a threat, although of course it's hard competition, but that usually makes you perform better yourself."

Despite not seeing Apple as a threat, one of Nokia's latest smartphones, the N95, is seen as one of the iPhone's chief competitors, and the phone actually runs a Web browser derived from the same engine as Safari, according to PC Magazine analyst Sascha Segan.
"This license with Nokia supports the potential for very widespread use of our VibeTonz System -- and the VibeTonz System supports the potential for a much fuller, more multisensory experience for users," said Immersion chief executive Victor Viegas in a statement Monday. "With VibeTonz technology, Nokia can very purposefully access the sense of touch and add value throughout the mobile device."

The VibeTonz System is comprised of a Mobile Player and an SDK, Immersion said. It offers a broad range of tactile feedback effects to make user interface features, applications, and downloadable, multimedia content more intuitive and engaging.

When embedded in mobile devices, Immersion says that the VibeTonz Mobile Player can offer precise, high-speed control over the vibration actuator to produce subtle tactile effects.

VibeTonz SDK provides cross-platform APIs and a suite of authoring tools for making development and customization of tactile feedback fast and easy.

A spokesman for Nokia said it's still too early to say which phones will use the technology, although Nokia's high-end Nseries phones are thought to be a likely target.

The company also wouldn't give specifics about when consumers might see touch screen enabled devices released.

According to market research firm iSuppli, shipments of touch screen-enabled devices are projected to jump from fewer than 200,000 units in 2006 to more than 21 million units by 2012, with the bulk of the components going to mobile phones.