David vs Goliath is a favourite type of story and a fine example of one is shaping up in the Hamble, the sailing Mecca on the South Coast, where a little company, with a unique technology, is squaring up to the mighty Apple and its iconic CEO Steve Jobs.
David, in this case Quantum Research (QR), has litigation already in the courts for patent infringement by Apple who used QR's charge transfer touch sensitive technology in the wheel control of some of the iPods.
Now, QR reckons, Apple has used QR’s charge transfer technology again in Apple’s upcoming bumper product the iPhone.
No one knows for sure whether Apple used it, because the only iPhones are prototypes closely held by Apple.
But in Jobs’ recent demo the iPhone was shown as going into phone mode when it was lifted to the ear, and QR recognises that as one of the characteristic capabilities of its own technology.
QR’s technology was developed thirteen years ago by the company’s founder and CEO Hal Philipp. Philipp was working as a consultant at the time and was asked to develop some capacitive sensing washroom taps.
He patented the method he used, and founded QR in 1996 to exploit the technology. The company now has 56 employees and had sales worth $12m last year.
With touch sensing now becoming all the rage, QR’s time has come. "Capacitive touch is the new 'must have' technology", says Philipp, "it's the largest new market for silicon this decade - a 10 bn unit, $1bn a year market for mobile alone. All over the world people are scambling to put capacitive touch into their products."
As well as selling its products on the fabless model, the company has engaged a former ARM licensing expert, Duncan Bryan, to embark on a licensing programme to spread the technology.
QR has licensed the technology to Motorola which uses it in the keypads of some of its mobile phones.
STMicroelectronics is the first semiconductor company licensee. Bryan says he has four more prospects which he expects to sign in the next six months.
Although there are other ways to implement touch sensing, QR’s is the most accurate and the most reliable over temperature and humidity. That Apple has picked up on QR's technology is a compliment in itself. In fact Apple already uses QR's technology quite legitimastely becasue it buys in QR chips to use in some of its products.
But incorporating the technology into its products without a licence is quite another matter, and Apple has never asked QR for a licence.
So now QR's Bryan has a warning for Steve Jobs: “We will", he says, "be looking very carefully at the iPhone”.
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