One of the biggest factors that make tablets more expensive is their touchscreens. Specifically, it is the material with which they are made. It is the ITO, or indium tin oxide, which is terribly expensive because it is difficult to find. To end these prices, Fujifilm works on cheaper touch panels made with an old acquaintance of the company and of traditional photography: silver nitrate. With silver nitrate Reactive grains of photographic film were made from almost its inception with Daguerre and Fox Talbot. The return to this cheap stuff could revolutionize tablet prices, smartphones and laptops with touch screens.
The information comes from the Bloomberg news agency that assures that the Japanese company works hard to become strong in this sector by giving life to a material that has worked since its inception and that seemed dead since the arrival of digital cameras except for their use. for artistic projects.
Fujifilm would not be the only company embarking on producing cheaper touch panels. The Americans would also be working towards this same goal Atmel Corporation y Uni-Pixel Inc.. All these projects are based on abandoning the expensive ITO and looking for cheaper metals to generate a comparable touch capacity.
Evidently the bigger the screens the more it would be noticeable that price difference. In principle, in 7-inch smartphones and tablets the difference would not be so great. However, in large format tablets or touch laptops we would see a notable reduction. In this sense, the Biggest beneficiary could be Microsoft whose operating systems require larger screens to get the most out of it and which has this competitive disadvantage compared to Android and iOS. To see cheaper touch laptops, desktops or all-in-one touch PCs, surely consumers would react very positively.
The change is forced to occur since ITO reserves are in short supply and the three companies mentioned are already establishing relationships to move it. Uni-Pixel has contracts with Dell, Atmel is sending test material to ASUS.
Source: Bloomberg