Jenna Wortham/The New York Times HTC’s first tablet comes with a stylus.BARCELONA, Spain — Hardware makers are engineering new ways to make their mobile devices stand out. For HTC, the Taiwanese phone manufacturer, that meant revisiting an older idea: a tablet that can be scribbled on with a stylus.
Earlier this week, HTC intorduced its first tablet, the Flyer, here at the Mobile World Congress. The addition of a stylus was not a novelty play, said Horace Luke, the company’s chief innovation officer, who oversees the conception, design and execution of the company’s line of mobile products. Instead it was HTC’s effort to nudge the needle forward on tablet design and offer a different way to input information.
“There are certain things that are natural about the way we write and collect information,” Mr. Luke said. “Not everyone knows how to type, but the second you pick up a pencil, you start scribbling.”
Well before the iPad’s debut, Microsoft was pushing tablet computers — but ones that would accept only stylus input, not finger touches. The Flyer can handle both.
Mr. Luke made sure the digital pen works similarly to its analog counterparts. Pressing harder draws a thicker line, and two buttons on its side allow users to toggle between a highlighting feature and erase mode. When the stylus is making contact with the screen of the Flyer, its input overrides all other input to the screen. That way, if someone is sketching with the pen and their hand accidentally brushes the screen, the device won’t misinterpret the contact as an effort to open an application and lose the doodle.
“We thought a lot about human behavior and made the Flyer do what people do naturally,” Mr. Luke said.
In addition, the company created software it calls Scribe to help integrate the function of the stylus into applications and services. After snapping a picture, you can immediately use the stylus to jot comments on the image before posting the photograph to Facebook or Flickr. You can also write notes in the margin of a Web site or article and tap the screen to e-mail the page, notes and all, to a friend.
Mr. Luke has been designing smartphones for HTC over the last several years as the company’s products have soared in popularity and become well known in the United States. He said he believed these special features would help the Flyer gain traction among consumers and distinguish itself from the many other options available.
“If it isn’t changing your life, then we’re just building a gadget,” he said.
HTC executives said the tablet would go on sale in the second half of the year. The company has not yet disclosed how much it will cost.