The delayed promise of Apple's new 3D Touch
With its announcement of an upgraded iPhone and a new mobile operating system featuring more sensitive 鈥�3D Touch鈥� technology, Apple appears to be focusing on the many ways users interact with digital devices.
Most significantly, the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, unveiled on Wednesday at the company鈥檚 annual media event in San Francisco, 聽will now recognize a wider range of gestures. The new mobile operating system, iOS 9, will allow what Apple is a soft touch 鈥減eek鈥� 鈥� a pop-up view of an application for quick uses such as reviewing the contents of an e-mail 鈥� and a harder press 鈥減op,鈥� which moves to a new screen.
Software developers say these more incremental changes to existing products 鈥� which were first made available at the company鈥檚 Worldwide Developers Conference in June 鈥� mean that designers can develop mobile applications that make use of the new features over time.
鈥淭he users don鈥檛 say, 鈥極h those new features have come out, now I鈥檒l use them.鈥� It takes a couple of years for developers to really leverage those features,鈥� says Ryan Matzner, director of business development at Fueled, a mobile applications developer based in New York.
Once apps start to embrace these new features, Mr. Matzner says, 鈥淭hings are a little bit easier, a little bit faster, and people are using their phones a little bit more or a little bit less.鈥�
鈥淭he clear trajectory to this technology is that it鈥檒l feel like a button, it鈥檒l vibrate or buzz. You鈥檙e already kind of seeing that, but it鈥檚 easy to confuse push notifications, like a buzz or double buzz [with interactive feedback],鈥� he adds.
This type of interactive response as a user presses harder or more softly, is often called 鈥渉aptic鈥� feedback. It has been 鈥� with varying degrees of success 鈥� on mobile phones using Google鈥檚 competing Android operating system, but Wednesday's announcement points to a change in how Apple is using the technology.
While the company often trumpets new products at events such as Wednesday鈥檚 launch as revolutionary, many Apple products 鈥� such as the original iPhone, introduced in 2007, or the Apple TV, debuted in 2006, are introduced after competitors unveil their own versions.
But Apple鈥檚 signature minimalist designs and user-friendly software 鈥� along with the brand鈥檚 cachet 鈥� often make the company鈥檚 products popular even if they are not the first in line, analysts say.
鈥淚n part they are responding to demand or potential for demand, but given who they are, they鈥檙e trying to make a market,鈥� says Tuong Nguyen, an analyst at the market research firm Gartner who tracks the company.
Since the new features are only available on the newest generation of phones, some developers say their initial uses may be somewhat limited.
鈥�3D Touch is exciting and will offer genuinely new ways to interact with iOS, but faces serious obstacles to its short term adoption in apps,鈥� says Greg Pierce, founder of the mobile development company Agile Tortoise, which has introduced several products focused on note-taking and writing, in an e-mail to the Monitor.
The new gestures also present some design problems, Mr. Pierce says.
鈥淢any users will not easily discover features which rely on 3D Touch, because they may not be tied to a button to other visible element on the screen," he says. "This is a problem for all features which rely on gestures, not unique to 3D Touch, but may make it difficult to get adoption of these features."
Mr. Nguyen, the analyst, says given that this year鈥檚 iPhone models are simply a redesigned version of last year鈥檚 iPhone 6, he鈥檚 more excited by Apple鈥檚 other announcements, including a new Apple TV featuring the interactive personal assistant Siri and a marketplace for mobile applications.
The company also unveiled a lower-cost iPhone and a new iPad, the iPad Pro, which features a larger screen and an interactive stylus, but costs significantly more than previous models.
"The physical [interface] tends to be most obvious feature for a user. They first notice, 鈥榊ou can touch this,鈥� and 鈥業f you touch it harder you鈥檒l get this.鈥� 鈥� he says. 聽鈥淏ut I feel the bigger and more impactful applications [for Apple] are with services and applications.鈥�
