Microsoft buys multitouch display maker Perceptive Pixel
Summary: Microsoft buys multi-touch large-display vendor, emphasizing collaboration in office work as one of the main potential uses of the technology. — Follow @maryjofoley — Microsoft announced on July 9 plans to buy Perceptive Pixel …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft had been building a touch-computing narrative for years, from its 2008 multitouch demonstration to its 2010 plan to buy Canesta. Perceptive Pixel adds a specialist in large multitouch displays as Microsoft prepares Windows 8 for release to manufacturing in August.
The deal concentrates on office collaboration rather than consumer devices alone: Microsoft is bringing the display maker and its technology inside the company at a point when touch is becoming a central Windows interface.
First-order effects
- Microsoft gains Perceptive Pixel’s large-display multitouch capability and brings the vendor under its control.
- Perceptive Pixel’s office-collaboration displays shift from being an independent product offering to a Microsoft-owned technology asset.
Second-order effects
- Windows 8 gains a more direct hardware complement for large shared-screen use, strengthening Microsoft’s ability to present touch as an interface for workplace collaboration as well as individual PCs.
- Independent large-touch-display vendors face a platform owner that can align operating-system development with specialized display technology.
Third-order effects
- The acquisition extends Microsoft’s pattern of buying interaction hardware capabilities, following its planned Canesta acquisition, rather than relying entirely on outside component and display partners.
- If Microsoft continues pairing Windows with owned touch technologies, competition in workplace computing shifts toward integrated hardware-and-software experiences rather than the operating system alone.
The trend: Microsoft is moving from demonstrating touch interfaces to acquiring the hardware capabilities needed to make them part of the Windows ecosystem.