Four Major Developments to Watch
As mobile software technology continues to expand and enhance user experience, hardware companies, such as Apple and Samsung, as well as screen suppliers like Corning, are matching pace with new, innovative features. Touch screen technology in particular is rapidly improving, getting more durable, hygienic and seamlessly integrated into consumers’ lives.
Four major developments in touch screen technology have caught our attention in the last year or two:
1. Curved Screens
In the last year, hardware companies, specifically Samsung and LG, have been rolling out smartphones with curved screens. These brands are emphasizing the ability of this new touch screen technology to curve around a user’s face, its higher quality audio and enhanced video experience in landscape mode. Its innovative shape also minimizes screen reflections and allows for screen privacy.
LG and Samsung also tout their smartphone’s ability to make curved shape fit the human body better, creating a seamless connection with their hardware for consumers, allowing technology to become ever more ingrained in everyday life.
2. Shatter-proof Screens
Apple has been a long-standing partner with Corning’s Gorilla Glass for its touch-screen technology, but rumor has it the hardware provider is shifting focus to sapphire-crystal screens. Apple already uses sapphire for the camera and phone screen in the 5S. However, iPhone users are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with their easily-cracked screens. If rumors regarding the switch prove to be true with the release of the iPhone 6, Apple is obviously listening. Sapphire touch screen technology is supposedly scratch-proof, shatter-proof and basically unbreakable.
Need to see Sapphire’s strength and durability for yourself?
3. Germ-free screens
Not to be deterred as a leading screen-provider, Corning released an antimicrobial Gorilla Glass earlier this year. The product features a formula of ionic silver to resist germs and prevent the growth of mildew, fungus, algae and mold for the lifetime of the device. When a user’s fingers make smudges all over their screens, 99.99 percent of the bacteria left behind dies, unable to build colonies and grow.
Considering smartphones have ten times as many more germs than a toilet seat, this touch screen technology may keep us a lot healthier and put us in less, er, face-to-face contact with gross bacteria. After all when’s the last time you actually disinfected your screen?
4. Real-life Minority Report Technology
In 2012, Samsung debuted transparent touch screen technology called Smart Windows. Straight out of Minority Report, the screen is a window-like touch screen. Daylight streams in to provide illumination, and at night, internal light sources kick in. Built like a tablet, users can browse the Internet, use apps and even make phone calls. What does someone on the other side of the glass sees? Nothing. The screen functions like a one-way mirror. Users aren’t sacrificing the best parts of a window, either. Technology allows users to use a “blinds” touch feature, to shut out light. When “closed” completely, absolutely no light gets in.
We haven’t heard much about the technology since 2012, but earlier this year, Samsung released the video on its “Display Technology” and its goals for a “Display Centric World,” which featured much more than just a transparent screen.
Heading Toward a Screen-Filled World
As these smartphone and tablet hardware companies have indicated with their dedication to innovation and technology expansion, our devices in ten years will look very different than they do today. We’re looking at a complete shift in how we connect with others in a completely new direction. Touch screen technology is just one way cell phones are evolving.
Developers, of course, are going to have to keep pace to meet consumers’ growing needs. We here at SteadyRain are looking forward to exploring all of this new touch screen technology and continuing to build mobile applications to support them as they rise in popularity.
What do you think? Are the screen technologies above gimmicks, or do you see them taking off?
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