Call Me: The Ongoing Trend in Touch Screen Phones

By Grace Pekar

With some of the technological advances we've made today, you'd think we'd be flying in space cars like the Jetsons. With touch screen products in our mix, we seem to be getting more futuristic. Sometimes referred to as "multi-touch," these products encompass one or more fingers touching a screen to move objects or pages on that screen. It's been popularized in recent years by Apple's iPhone, and now other cell phone companies are following in hot pursuit.

What's Out There

Touch screen started in 1971 when Dr. Sam Hurst needed an efficient way to read a huge strip of data, and that need developed into Elographics, Inc. Now, thousands of touch screen products--from monitors and music players to tables and walls--are sold around the world. Cell phone companies' new products with touch screen capabilities are:

• iPhone by Apple, which is built with electrons that make a closed circuit for a faster responsive time.
• G1 by T-Mobile, who partnered with Google to create a touch screen/slider combination phone.
• Palm Pre by Sprint is not only a slider/touch screen combo phone, but it allows you to use multiple applications at once.
• Blackberry Storm, sold at Verizon, has an on-screen multi-touch keyboard and light sensing screen.
• AT&T offers the LG Vu, which Santos said is popular in her store, and the Incite 3G Smart Phone is their newest product.

Khriza Santos, sales associate at AT&T Cellular Advantage store in Homer Glen, contends touch screen phones aren't going away anytime soon. "It used to be that flip phones and slider phones were the good thing. Now, it's touch screen," she said, "and after, it will be a combination of those things."

Booming Business

Recession? What recession?

With touch screen being the latest fad, companies unleashing new products are enjoying economic success. Santos believes Apple's entertaining marketing of the iPhone helped with sales of touch screen products.

Apple's first quarterly reports for the 2009 fiscal year show over 4 million iPhones were sold in the first quarter--an 88 percent unit growth since last year. T-Mobile credits their $5.72 billion revenue in the fourth quarter for 2008, their highest in the past year, to new products like their G1 touch screen phone.

"My friend, cousin and boss all have touch screen phones," Amanda Hantson, 19, of Oak Lawn, said. They're increasingly sold and not returned often. Santos said the store gets very few return touch screen products, adding that the only returns were because the responsive time wasn't satisfactory.

"The touch screen responsive time means how well is it responding to the touch of your finger," she said. The iPhone's responsive time is rated the best, according to Santos, while other touch screen phones need more pressure with a fingernail or stylus. The faster the product is, the faster it sells.

Why it's Popular

As with many technological advances over time, fears of complex equipment sometimes plagues consumers. With touch screen products, functions are designed to be easier. "It's not completely complicated," said Hantson, who has a Samsung Glyde by Verizon. "It's pretty simple."

Santos explains a rising popularity not only in regular touch screen phones but in smart touch screen phones. These are the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices like Blackberry or Palm. They are ideal for students or professionals who need tools for organization.

Because touch screen phones come in all different forms--smart phones, slider phones, and colored phones--consumers have various options to choose from. "My grandpa tried out a Samsung Eternity, and he decided he doesn't want a touch screen because he needs to feel the buttons," Santos said. "It's all about preference. It's like an accessory."

While Santos believes preference plays a role in the touch screen trend, she does acknowledge more younger people flock towards these products because it's new technology. "The technology itself and how it works is pretty cool," said Hantson, despite having software setbacks with her phone. "When it does work, it works very well."

Photo credit: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press