Can we believe that the Apple iPhone is changing the way the mobile phones will be designed and used? I think we can when this is the view of a product specialist at Qualcomm.
"The biggest impact it will have is on the user experience. The touch screen, for example, my guess is everyone will adopt that," Alex Katouzian, v-p of product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies told EW.
If he is right then we could start to see a move away from button keypads to touch screens and iPod style control wheels in not only mobiles, but a wide range of electronic products and instruments.
This will come as no surprise to Southampton-based Quantum Research Group which has seen a couple of leading microcontroller suppliers license its capacitive touch sensor technology.
Deals with Renesas Technology and Atmel indicates that designers will soon have the opportunity to design touch controls in an array of motor control, LED and display systems. This moves the control wheel concept out of the consumer market into a wider range of electronic products.
Cypress Semiconductor was quick to spot this trend and has been offering a capacitive touch control chipset including a programmable system-on-chip device since it won a design-in with Apple a few years back.
Capacitive touch sensing technology is now seen as important for MCU firms because it offers a lower cost alternative to electromechanical switches and membrane touch controls.
According to Hal Philipp, CEO of Quantum Research Group: "The range of devices from Renesas across their MCU product families gives us the ability to address a broad range of applications with devices appropriate to each market segment."
It seems that touch control could be about to punch its weight in products ranging from mobiles to microwaves.