February 16, 2009

Android multitouch support: Goolge is afraid of Apple? Give me a break!

With Apple's multitouch recently filled patent and the upcoming patent war with Palm (for Pre's multitouch support) a number of sources speculate some kind of agreement between Google and Apple, for Google not including multitouch support in Android.

According to the Register Google is interested in keeping Apple happy for a number of reasons. This might only be half the truth for a number of reasons :
  • First, regardless of the multitouch hype I am not really convinced about it's value. Yes, it sounds cool to have support for zooming in/out and also supporting a couple more of multitouch gestures but hey, I can live without that. I consider for example copy-paste support much more important (not to mention running many apps in the background). Integration with Google Apps and a smooth overall user experience (keep it simple) is certainly most valuable to just supporting multitouch.
  • Secondly, both Android as an OS and the G1 device have hidden (not exposed to user) multitouch support according to this video. Google is certainly not afraid of Apple; they could expose the multitouch capability but they choose not to; they are too smart not to copy Apple's multitouch. They need to deferrentiate; they are not used to be the followers they are the pioneers. I am sure they will come up with a better and more valuable solution if this is one of their priorities right now (which I don't think so). There are a number of technologies waiting still for exploitation such as speech interfaces, eye/face tracking or 3D touchless gestures just to name a fiew. I am sure Google is carefully evaluating such technologies and it is just a matter of time to see them revolutionalize our mobile experience!

2 comments:

  1. Your link to youtube.com video does not work.
    check this out. :)

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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