Tag Archives: active stylus

HP ZBook X2 and active pen market

October 18, 2017.  By Jennifer Colegrove Ph.D.

Today, HP just announced the new ZBook X2 detachable PC with a Wacom’s active pen with 4096 pressure sensitive levels. The active pen has natural tilt and almost zero latency.

Figure: HP ZBook x2 with Wacom pen

Source: HP

HP is the earlier adopter of active pen. Its TouchSmart 12.1” NB PCs has adopted N-trig’s DuoSense active pen technology around 2009. HP is the company which has tried many types of active pens in the past 8 years.

Fourteen major brands’ adoption of active pen is analyzed in the Active pen 2017 report.

About 4 months ago, Apple just announced two new iPad Pro: the 10.5 inch version and the 12.9 inch version with active pens.

The active pen industry landscape has changed dramatically in the recent 3 years: Companies actively working on active pens has increased from 60 companies in 2014 to over 120 companies in 2017. These over 120 companies’ profiles are in the excel database. The strengths and weaknesses of key players are analyzed in this report.

The Active Pen 2017 Report provides the detail pen technologies analysis of 21 types of pen: 13 active pen and 8 passive pens.

There is no perfect active pen yet in the market. The 10 key characters of an ideal active pen are analyzed in chapter 8. This report provides not only the outlook for active pen and penetration in touch devices, but also provide Bill of Material (BOM) analysis of active pen module for “pen only” and “pen and finger” touch in chapter 7.

Over 100 devices with active pen are compared side by side with pen technologies and pen suppliers in the excel database.

Touch Display Research forecasted the active pen market will grow rapidly in the next several years.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

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

Cima and Anoto Active Pen for Large Touch Displays

February 20, 2016

At ISE (Integrated Systems Europe) 2016, Cima Nanotech booth showcased large size touch display with Anoto’s active pen. The touch sensor is using ITO-replacement–Cima’s SANTE transparent conductor technology. The Anoto’s active pen is based on camera with micro dot technology.

Figure 1. Cima Nanotech with Anoto active pen at ISE 2016

Cima anoto pen

Photo source: Display Daily, Feb 2016

The active pen industry landscape has changed dramatically in recent 2 years: The number of companies actively working on active pen technology has increased from 60 companies in 2014 to over 100 companies in 2016.

Touch Display Research defines active pen as a pen with an electronic circuit. Some active pens have an integrated battery in it, and others don’t. A passive pen has neither an electronic circuit nor a battery. In the recently published “Active Pen Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast 2016 Report”, Second Edition, Touch Display Research Inc., analyzed more than twenty digital pen technologies, which include thirteen active pen technologies and eight passive pen technologies.

Figure 2: Active pen and passive pen summary and comparison (Full table is in the excel database)

active pen passive pen table

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

Digital pen input is very useful in education, certain language input, medical, finance, industry applications, and content creation. Active pen technology is superior to passive in terms of accuracy, pressure sensing, and input of fine line. We forecast that active pen usage will have rapid growth in the next several years.

More analysis of active pen and active pen market forecast can be found in the “Active Pen Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast 2016 Report”. More analysis of ITO-replacement transparent conductor for large size touch display can be found in the “ITO-replacement 2016 report”.

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

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

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About Touch Display Research Inc.

Touch Display Research, Inc. (www.TouchDisplayResearch.com) is an independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in touch screen and emerging display technologies such as OLED displays, OLED lighting, flexible displays, e-paper displays, ITO-replacement, Active pen, 3D displays, near-eye displays, pocket projectors, quantum dots, gesture controls, voice controls, and eye controls. Touch Display Research provides standard reports, consulting projects, and due diligence for touch suppliers, display manufacturers, consumer electronics ODMs/OEMs, material suppliers, investor companies, venture capitalists, and companies who are merging or acquiring companies in the touch screen, display, and materials industry. We are member of FlexTech Alliance and SID.