Huawei’s ‘force touch’ puts it in the innovation league
THE biggest question being asked of smartphone makers nowadays was neatly answered at an event preceding the annual IFA 2015 hi-tech trade show in Berlin this week.
As the smartphone wars enter a phase of incremental improvement, with new models offering almost imperceptible enhancements, has handset innovation reached a plateau?
Samsung and Apple appear to confirm that suspicion, with new devices that largely tweak existing technology. That’s not a bad thing in itself, as most of the tweaks are responses to consumer requirements.
The world No 3, Huawei, has long played catch-up with the leaders, competing on price rather than innovation. Its last three flagship phones, the P6, P7 and P8, set new standards for thin-form factors and battery management, and helped raise the brand from entry-level leader to mid-range price champion.
In Berlin this week, arguably for the first time, Huawei added innovation to its credentials. It unveiled its new flagship, the Mate S, with a dizzying array of step changes in technology.
Most notably, the 5.5-inch screen introduces “force touch” to phones. The screen is pressure-sensitive, allowing different types of touch to activate different functions.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, drew gasps as he demonstrated how the phone becomes a scale to weigh small objects: an orange placed on the screen showed its weight in grams.
Subsequent testing showed it worked with any object that could be placed entirely on the screen, meaning the scale will be more of a gee-whiz gimmick than a practical tool. However, it is precisely this gimmick that implies the practical potential of force touch.
For example, Yu also demonstrated an update of a short cut called Knuckle Control 2.0, introduced in the Huawei P8. Drawing a “C” on the screen with a knuckle activates a camera, a “W” opens the weather app, and a double tap with a knuckle starts video recording.
Possibly the most significant innovation lurks on the back of the handset, in the fingerprint sensor. This is an area in which Huawei had revealed its capabilities in the Mate 7, the large-screen predecessor to the S. When released late last year, it surprised the market with the most accurate fingerprint recognition yet on a phone.
The Mate S introduces Fingerprint 2.0, which Huawei says halves recognition time. The fingerprint pad also becomes a control mechanism, with a down-slide of the finger bringing up the notifications window, and a cross-slide flipping between photos.
The focus on touch makes it possible to reimagine the experience of a phone, resulting in innovation that is more than skin-deep. It also gives Huawei a new focus for cementing its status as the world’s third-biggest manufacturer without having to pander to the entry-level market.
“With the Mate S, we wanted to do something different,” said Clement Wong, vice-president for global product marketing at Huawei. “With our previous product ranges, for example, we talked about phones for women or business users. Now we are focused on making more people love the phone. For that, we have to bring to market a premium phone and an innovative experience.”
Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee, and subscribe to his YouTube channel at http://bit.ly/GGadgets