Universal Stylus Initiative’s impact on active pen market

September 22, 2016

Today Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) just announced its breakthrough Specification 1.0.

Launched in 2015, Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) is an international not-for-profit technology trade association whose mission is to define industry-wide standards for interoperable communication between an active stylus and touch-enabled devices such as phones, tablets, and computing and entertainment platforms. Currently, it has 34 member companies.

The USI 1.0 Specification defines a standard signaling mechanism and communication protocol between a stylus and a touch-enabled device. Users will be able to use a single USI Stylus across all of their USI-enabled devices and any USI stylus shipped with devices will work with other USI-enabled devices, even those from different manufacturers. This is a breakthrough capability and industry-first enabled by the USI 1.0 Specification.

Touch Display Research had a chance to interview Mr. Pete Mueller, Chairman of USI and Principal Engineer/Senior Technologist at Intel, about the USI spec 1.0. We asked when we can expect to see the first commercially available active pen that is USI compatible. He replied that will be end of 2017 or early 2018, since the OEMs and silicon foundries need at least 1 year after seeing the specification to plan it into their roadmap.

In USI’s press release, it quoted Touch Display Research’s market forecast, “Touch Display Research predicts that active-stylus market revenue will double from nearly $3B in 2016 to almost $6B over the next four years.”

Figure: Active Pen Market forecast to 2021

Active pen market forecast 2016

Source: Active pen technologies, supply chain and market forecast 2016 report, 2nd edition, Touch Display Research Inc.

More analysis of the USI’s impact on the active pen industry, and over 100 active pen and passive pen companies’ profiles can be found in the “Active pen 2016 report”.

Thirteen types of active pen and eight types passive pen are analyzed in the report. The Active pen 2016 report includes a PowerPoint file of over 270 pages and an Excel database.

You can subscribe on our website: www.touchdisplayresearch.com in the Market Research Report page or contact us by email: jc@touchdisplayresearch.com

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team