14 DAY TRIAL // Immersion Corporation, one of the most important developers and licensors of touch feedback technology, recently announced the launch of the first mobile phone that allows users to design their own haptic effects to personalize touch feedback – the Samsung Haptic 2.
Touch feedback makes the mobile phone user experience more sensory, intuitive, useful, and fun. With this feature, users feel exhilarating force feedback in mobile games, similar to that found in console games, unmistakable confirmation in response to touchscreen, keypad, and button presses, as well as unique caller IDs with distinct vibrations that reveal who is calling even when the sound is turned off.
From its "My own haptic" menu, Haptic 2 allows users to create personalized haptic effects through a graphical user interface based on the conventions of Immersion's VibeTonz Studio authoring tool for developers. Users can touch and drag icons representing wave shape, duration, and intensity to create distinctive vibrational patterns. These creations allow them to personalize their phones with unique haptic experiences, such as assigning them as non-audible ringtones that signal incoming calls.
Starting March 2008, Samsung used Korean TV, Web, and print ads to emphasize the first Haptic phone's unique touch features, content, responsiveness, and fun. The handset was such a huge success that Samsung launched a second one in late September, with even more features. Haptic 2, priced at approximately $600 for the 4 GB version, and $690 for the 16 GB version, surpassed sales of 75,000 units in South Korea in its first three weeks.
The use of touch feedback for mobile phones has been accelerating, with 3.5 million VibeTonz-enabled phones shipped in the first quarter of 2008. In the second quarter, the number doubled, increasing to 7 million units, whereas in the third quarter, it jumped to 10 million units. More than 30 million handsets with VibeTonz haptic technology have been shipped around the world.
