This is an interesting point, which may turn out to surprise.

Although resistive screens are cheaper than capacitive (afaik the only known mobile MT tech), I'll bet that Stantum has a patent (or some other form of intellectual property protection) on their invention. If this is true (and it seems reasonable), it grants them the right to a mini-monopoly, or to set the price on these products as they see fit. So while we may see cheap plain-resistive screens coming out of aisa, Stantum screens are likely to be priced at a profit maximising point.

Put another way, the inexpensiveness of the resistive screen may be a benefit mostly for Stantum, as it can improve their profit margins.

Playing the armchair economist:
I would guess that, due to the rapidity of technological evolution the horizon for payback on the technology will be in the near future, as competition will likely come up with near-substitute multi-touch tech; perhaps even using resistive screens. This means that the payback period will be closer, and thus price higher (fewer units sold in the short-term, vs long-term).

I'm guessing that these screens will be priced competitively with current capacitive screens (current MT kings), with the advertised advantage of not needing a finger or special stylus, and having ultra-accurate multi-touch input. I'd also guess that the company will license the topology of the controller (like ARM does with its semi-conductors) to resistive device manufacturers for RAPID deployment of the tech, as they already have the facilities of mass production well established.

Playing the student:
This is all speculation. As I'm not an economist, I'd love to get anybody's expertise/knowledge/comments on the matter!

YARR!
}:^)~

Coooooo

After listening to you guys and doing some research, here's a chart comparing resistive versus capacitive and some links for further reading:

______________________Resistive___________Capacitive
Cost:_________________Lower_________________Higher
Multitouch:___________Yes___________________Yes
Clarity:_______________75%___________________90%
Works w/stylus:______Yes____________________Yes (1)
Durability:____________Lower_________________Highe r
Affected by outside
elements:_____________No____________________No
Works w/gloved
finger:________________Yes____________________Yes (2)
Drifts:________________Yes____________________Yes

1. Requires a specialized stylus, but may be usable with a simple metal stylus if the sensitivity is increased.
2. Surface capacitive touch screens require special gloves, but projected capacitance touch screens can work through normal gloves.

The links, if anyone really wants to read through them:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question716.htm
http://www.embedsystems.com/devices/touch-screen
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/whi...een_technology
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007..._076_21_07.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen
http://www.amsimpex.com/products/cap...uchscreen.html
http://www.pentagramtechnologies.com...apacitive.html

And if anyone is still reading this, here's a few things from my own experience.

I own and have used for long periods of time, 3 Palm PDA's (all resistive touch screens), an N810 (resistive, of course), and an iPod Touch (projected capacitance).
I have also briefly used an LG Dare and an LG Voyager (both resistive) which had the s**tiest touch screens conceivable and should be used as the one call/punishment for serial killers and child rapists. So there's what I've used.

Stuff I've noticed while using these devices (disclaimer: I enjoy using the N810 and the iPod Touch. This is not a comparison between their capabilities, but rather the touch technologies they use):
1. The first time I used an iPhone for about 5 minutes in an AT&T store, I hated the keyboard because it seemed too inaccurate. However, now that I have an iPod touch, I've learned that you simply have to trust the keyboard. I can type much faster (and prefer) using the iPod compared to the N810 soft keyboard. (The hard keyboard I do prefer over the iPod's)
2. Every resistive based device I have used for long periods of time, including the N810, has suffered drifting. This made the Palms unusable because the calibrator didn't do anything. Fortunately, the calibrator on the N810 does work, so drift there is just a minor annoyance. I haven't noticed any drift on the iPod Touch.
3. Sensitivity: the iPod blows the rest out of the water.
4. Stylus-friendliness: iPod loses here.
5. Finger-friendliness: iPod wins. I find it far easier with the iPod touch to select a small link (such as a page number on this forum) that on the N810. And that's with minimal zooming. I almost always have to break out the stylus on the N810. This could have something to do with software though.
6. Personally, I prefer to be able to have my finger glide across the screen instead of having to fight the friction caused by pushing down. Resistive can get close, but never quit as frictionless as capacitive can be.

Some final thoughts:
As the interface on the IT's stands today, they need a touch screen that supports a stylus. I think that Fremantle could be a great opportunity to eliminate the need for a stylus, however it would still be nice to be able to use one if wanted (drawing kinda sucks w/o a stylus). I think it would be great if Nokia would look into infrared and/or imaging based touch screens, which, I believe, would be superior to both resistive and capacitive in every way, except maybe cost.

Just a few things: The technology to do this is software according to the linked page. If this is accurate, then you can not get a patent on the technology as there is no real new product. Instead, it is code and therefore, falls under copyright protection. This is good news. One can take the same idea and write his or her own code to do pretty much the same things and, as long as they didn't steal any code, there is nothing Stantum can do about it.

Now, it's true that Stantum wil likely try to license it's code to people for a price. But, it seems to me that what usually happens in IT is that after a small software group produces something like this, it works like a proof of concept. Then, larger corps take note that it can be done and then some other larger software companies will replicate the same concept with their own code and sell it/put it in their own products.

In our case, we should hope that the demand would be something that either 1.) Nokia would write the code or 2.) Some kind hearted fool that's into linux will take it upon themselves to start a project...and in about 8 years it'll be useful

Either way,

neatojones,

this is primarily hardware related.
what they manage is simply not possible with standard 4 or 5 wire touchscreen.

the touch screen they are using is essentially a camera with many pixel points, the 4 wire resistive just get a value from each edge of the touch screen.

whatever code you are thinking is their translation stuff buried inside the controller chip before it even reaches the host operating system.

If you could give me a similar LCD overlay and usb connection which gave back a bitmap of data the libraries to identify fingers already exist (tabletop multitouch with webcams and projectors and paper will use them).

Saved in my all-time favourite bookmarks

In the category:

UI -> Videos

Which contains also multi-touch videos from 5+ years ago...

Thanks for sharing!