Too difficult to copy? Why don’t new Android flagships have 3D Touch?
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As early as last fall, there were multiple reports and so-called "insiders" who broke the news that Samsung's new flagship smartphone Galaxy S7 will be equipped with a pressure-sensitive touch screen, similar to the 3D Touch technology that Apple added to the iPhone 6s. Because the technology first appeared on the iPhone, it attracted a lot of attention, and a large number of manufacturers also wanted to introduce it to consumer smartphones as one of the innovative selling points. However, it now seems that many sources are not well-informed. On February 21, Samsung officially released two flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, but many senior Samsung fans said that in fact, Samsung adopted a relatively safe and conservative upgrade method this year, with internal hardware specifications upgraded to industry standards, the appearance was fine-tuned, the micro SD card slot design was restored, and a better camera was provided. Unfortunately, Samsung did not show too many existing or future forward-looking technologies. As for the long-rumored 3D Touch-like pressure-sensitive touch screen, it did not appear in the upgrade list. Whether Samsung really considered the cost factor is not yet known, but we can reasonably suspect that there may be some technical difficulties in the development progress of the solution. No one knows why the new Android flagship does not have "3D Touch" technology Many comments do not take the iPhone 6s support for 3D Touch seriously. After all, pressure-sensitive screens were not invented by Apple, and Apple's biggest advantage is to integrate resources and re-use them. It was previously reported that the industry chain of the "pressure-sensitive screen solution" has been perfected, and it is only waiting for other brands to place orders. Huawei and ZTE are two of the manufacturers that are testing the waters, and other brands are also testing and perfecting their own supporting software solutions. Among them, the most popular is Samsung, because the market share of Samsung, the leader in the smartphone field, continues to decline. At the end of last year, Samsung announced that it had demoted its former meritorious Shin Jong-kyun, and his position as president of the mobile communications business was replaced by Dongjin Koh, who had to retreat to the second line. If Samsung wants to maintain its throne and reverse the downward trend in revenue, it must come up with commendable forward-looking technologies, such as pressure-sensitive touch screens. The Wall Street Journal also affirmed that Samsung will continue to "copy" Apple's differentiated innovative features and implement them on the Galaxy S7 flagship phone. Samsung has its own semiconductor business, and the company is very good at designing chips and sensors for mobile phones. As a large vertically integrated company, it is not difficult for Samsung to develop a pressure-sensitive touch screen. More importantly, Samsung can also directly purchase solutions for integration, including purchasing Synaptics' Clear Force pressure sensor touch solution. However, judging from the new phones released at the MWC 2016 exhibition in recent days, many top flagship smartphones that have been announced, whether Galaxy S7, LG G5 or Sony Xperia X Performance, do not have technology similar to 3D Touch. Among them, Samsung applied for a lot of related pressure-sensitive touch patents last year, but no one knows when and which Android flagship will add the new generation of touch technology equivalent to Apple's 3D Touch. Apple has expressed that 3D Touch technology is not easy to implement. 3D Touch is currently Apple's most cutting-edge technology. Its appearance makes the iPhone's touch more thorough, and the system interaction is also more in-depth than before. It should be noted that the application of this technology on the iPhone 6s is faster than the development speed of other competitors in the entire mobile field. Many mobile phone manufacturers have not yet fully integrated it into their own hardware devices and software, and many have just begun to understand this technology. It is no wonder that Apple dares to boldly describe it as the "next generation of multi-touch" technology. Previously, Apple's Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive made it clear in an interview with Bloomberg that 3D Touch technology is a successful development of Apple "for a long time - for many years." Another Apple executive, Chief Marketing Officer Phil Schiller, also emphasized that "in terms of hardware, it really takes incredible effort to develop such a technology (3D Touch) on the screen." To be honest, the difficulty of developing the entire 3D Touch solution is not ordinary. Apple only designed the development of capacitive pressure-sensing chips by itself and handed them over to third-party packaging. The linear motor and touch module were purchased, modified and optimized. At the same time, hardware alone is not enough. Software algorithms such as resolution, linear encoding, vector momentum calculation, synchronous co-processing and other signal processing are not easy, and the finished product requires efficiency and stability. For example, Apple built a capacitive sensor in the backlight layer below the iPhone 6s screen. The sensor can immediately measure the slight changes in pressure between the surface glass and the backlight. The iOS system level will respond to the finger pressure quickly, accurately and continuously based on these hardware-based measurement results and the signals sent by the touch sensor and accelerometer. In the end, Apple still completed the design of such a high-precision solution. Now 3D Touch is extremely powerful in the support of iOS 9 system level. More and more applications and games are compatible with 3D Touch, which makes many users more efficient in the process of interacting with the screen. Many users have integrated it into their daily life of using mobile phones. Software is another top issue . As mentioned above, since the industry chain has been perfected, Huawei and ZTE have begun to test the waters, why are other partners in the Android camp still not making any moves? Of course, if we don’t count the flagship phones mentioned above, the domestic manufacturer Gionee should be regarded as the latest to embrace 3D Touch recently. Its latest S8 is also equipped with 3D Touch technology. You can say that this is one of the products that completely imitates Apple's 3D Touch, because the S8 also supports the ability to define two levels of light press and heavy press according to the force, and derives functions such as quick preview, quick menu, side pressure shortcut bar, and is accompanied by tactile feedback of vibration prompts. However, since it is a high-imitation 3D Touch solution (as shown in the figure below, the setting interface is also highly imitated), we can also see from it that the Android camp is facing a huge potential problem, that is, software, which must be a permanent pain point for the Android camp. Even though the Gionee S8 has become one of the very few models in the Android camp with a pressure-sensitive screen, the official also claims that more applications will be expanded in the future, but the Gionee official is not sure how many. Simply put, Android phones can realize pressure-sensitive screens before Apple, but the situation of "getting up early and catching up late" is difficult to change, because it is very difficult to achieve system-level support, and due to the open source nature of Android, the experience of each solution may vary greatly, which not only affects the actual experience of users, but also increases the learning cost. It is obviously difficult to match Apple's consistent experience. To solve this problem, unless Google officially participates, even if the same solution is implemented, how can developers provide related applications for it? It is impossible for every manufacturer to rewrite it, right? For mobile phone manufacturers and developers, the application adaptation and testing of a related technology is very tedious and complicated, requiring a lot of software development, testing, adaptation and certification. The difficulty and cost of adaptation development are also quite high. In addition, last year, Huawei, a domestic smartphone manufacturer, took the lead in implementing the "Force Touch" technology on its new Mate S, and successfully "stole the show" from Apple before the release of iPhone 6s. At that time, we saw that the well-known overseas media The Verge even praised it, claiming that "Huawei implemented Force Touch technology on its mobile phones earlier than Apple, beating Apple." In fact, many reports did not mention that Huawei's technology "is only available in the 128GB version of Mate S", and because of technical difficulties, the user experience is not very satisfactory, so the difficult birth was delayed until the end of November, and the key is that the production is limited and it is only sold in China. As for the actual sales of this model in the domestic market where domestic mobile phone competition is so fierce, there is no specific number so far, and apart from media reviews, there are almost no posts on the Internet where users actually test and discuss Huawei Force Touch. Apple 3D Touch is just the beginning A mature and easy-to-add technology, I believe that no manufacturer would not like to include it and use it as one of the important selling points. Given that international big brands Samsung, LG and Sony have not implemented similar technologies in their latest flagships when facing fierce competition from domestic mobile phone manufacturers, it has to be said that Apple's implementation of 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is indeed a bold attempt of technical difficulty. For a long time, Apple's success has been inseparable from game-changing technology. In the past year, Apple's annual R&D expenses for new technologies have begun to soar to US$10 billion, and the product categories focused on so much R&D expenses are not very many. Although there are now Apple Watch and rumored VR and cars, the focus of investment is still on the "cash cow" iPhone. We all know that once the iPhone adopts a new technology, competitors in the Android camp will always rush to follow up and hype it as a hot spot for consumers. Siri and Touch ID are both vivid examples. Some people may say that 3D Touch is not popular because it is not practical, but the same is true for Siri. In short, although the iPhone 6s generation did not lead its competitors in all aspects and did not bring Apple another significant increase in sales, it once again demonstrated Apple's technological reserves and accumulation. I believe that as time goes by and Apple continues to invest in R&D expenses, it may eventually create more new technologies and user experiences that are unmatched by its competitors. As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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