Capacitive screens may come to Windows Mobile 6.5 after all
So says Marcus Perryman, developer evangelist for Windows Mobile. In a blog post explaining the new Windows Mobile 6.5 gestures he explained why Windows Mobile 6.5 will be mostly resistive, but also dropped a hint that this may not exclude some capacitive devices:
Windows Mobile 6.5 has primarily been designed for resistive screens because some input areas still rely on small controls and require a high level of input accuracy that can’t be easily achieved with a finger and require a stylus; however some device manufacturers are considering options to ship capacitive screens.
We have seen more than one hint of the same, with the Toshiba roadmap including a pretty cool device with a massive capacitive screen, the Toshiba K01.
Via MSMobiles.com
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wha?
you mean to tell me they are not even getting them ready to ship!
DONT THEY SEE EVERYONE ELSE HAS THEM!!!
IT JUST WORKS!!
forget it.
im throwing my hands up.
[Reply]
Joel Ivory Johnson Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
@aleis
Microsoft doesn’t ship the devices, only the software. It is up to the OEM to produce and ship the hardware. As pointed out in articles before now if an OEM wanted to use capacitive they can. TI made a Capacitive Windows Mobile device as a reference implementation (so it’s not for sell to consumers).
Microsoft plans to make changes to make the UI more finger friendly, but it is still an OEM choice whether or not a device will ship with a resistive or capacitive screen.
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shame they can’t figure out a way to make the best of both worlds when it comes to the 2 technologies
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One of the reasons WinMo is popular around the world is that they support complex inputs needed by Asian markets i.e. Japan/Kanji. Device Makers need to decide which is best for the markets they are targeting. In the US, capactive screens are the rage (I want one).
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John Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 12:34 am
iirc the iphone supports complex chinese character imput by using your finger and it looks pretty accurate. Capacitive screens are great because they dont require calibration, they aren’t ‘mushy,’ they dont accidentally activate in your pocket. They also dont work with gloves on, or with a stylus, and they seem to run at lower resolutions, at least on the 4 major devices in the US that sport them (Storm, iphone, pre, g1)
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Peter Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 5:49 am
All cons except resolution is a limitation of capacitive screens. The screen below he capacitive layer can be anything just like on a resistive screen.
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Chris Reply:
July 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
If so, could you direct me to that article?
I’ve been looking for a long time. 
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If phone uses all skined up WM (like TouchWiz 2.0) then capacitive screen is possible. Otherwise not.
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