Haptics 2020-2030: Technologies, Markets and Players

Haptics are key technologies found throughout many different types of electronic device today. The involve the use of actuators to stimulate the sense of touch and are used as part of the user interface in many different types of products. Examples include the provision of notification alerts in a vibrating smartphone, smartwatch or even vehicle, used to give feedback when replacing buttons with solid force sensors, right through to attempts to create highly realistic haptic sensations in the most immersive types of virtual reality platform. This report is a comprehensive study of haptics, including technology, value chain, players, applications, markets and forecasts, and concludes that the market will reach $4.8bn by 2030.

 

Haptics are not a new inclusion into devices. They have been included in products such as games console controllers for at least 30 years, and can be found in the majority of smartphones, smartwatches and several other key types of electronic product today. As such, the haptics industry as a whole involves the inclusion of the haptic actuator hardware and associated technology into over a billion devices each year. However, with a variety of different markets requiring different types of haptic technologies, and evolution of these markets over time, we have witnessed a shift in the core haptics technology over the last five years, and an even more significant shift in the direction of innovation efforts to develop the haptics technologies of the future.

 

This report takes a systematic approach to looking at every prominent type of technology for haptics, and markets/products in which they are included. The report looks at various incumbent technologies, including the prominent electromagnetic actuators that dominate the market today: eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motors and linear resonant actuators (LRAs). The report also lists many different emerging and more niche haptic actuator technologies, from other electromagnetic actuators such as voice coil motors (VCMs), to other technologies such as piezoelectric actuators (ceramic, composite and polymer based), shape memory alloys, microfluidic systems, electrostatic systems and several more. The report also looks at haptics in several other categories, including various technologies for contactless haptics, specific options for dedicated surface/display haptics or button haptics, through to the established and prominent, but largely separate markets around kinaesthetic haptics. All are covered in detail in the report, including key technology principles, examples, interviews with key players, historic market data and market forecasts.

 

This includes looking at specific product data back to 2010, including sales volumes of by product sector, and assessment of key product types to understand the haptics that they used. This gives an extremely granular set of historic data, presenting the number of devices sold with each type of haptics, and how this has changed over time. This is a key part of the assessment, allowing for historic trends to be observed, and for future market forecasts to be contextualized against historic data. This extremely granular approach to data collection and forecasting comes from IDTechEx's position as a technology market research firm; extensive research around consumer electronics (particularly including areas such as wearables, AR/VR, and so on), automotive markets (particularly including automotive user interfaces) and even related areas such as robotics provides key data sets which can be used to help understand the haptics market.

 

 

 

This data reveals several significant challenges and opportunities for haptics. For example, smartphones have been a really key market for haptics, allowing the industry to rise to unprecedented sales volumes for actuators. However, as growth slows in several of these key markets, haptics companies and end users alike are looking to higher value haptics to both maintain growth in the industry and to increasingly produce better haptics in products. As some leading markets begin to see challenges, others are emerging with excellent prospects. For example, haptics are a particular piece in the VR puzzle which many leading players in that industry have identified as one of their key technology challenges. Similarly, adoption of haptics into the automotive space is now beginning to accelerate, from various systems for driver alerts, to use in infotainment systems, and beyond. The report looks at the current dynamic for each key industry sector (smartphones, tablets, laptops, games console controllers, handheld games consoles, wearables, VR/AR/MR, other electronic devices, vehicles, other haptic devices), as well as specific case studies for specific ideas for new places where haptics can be used (in VR, automotive, as button haptics, as surface/display haptics, kinaesthetic haptics, contactless haptics).

 

The most critical part of the research behind this report is the interviews that IDTechEx analysts have conducted with players throughout the value chain. IDTechEx analysts develop technical expertise in specific fields of coverage, enabling a critical understanding of how different technologies compare. IDTechEx have listed over 120 companies in the whole haptics value chain as part of this report. The report also contains more than 25 full interview profiles, in which the IDTechEx team has visited, or conducted phone interviews with key leadership and/or technical personnel in each of the companies mentioned. IDTechEx have been covering the haptics space over a period of around 5 years, with parallel relevant technology coverage going back even further. Therefore, this means that IDTechEx has developed a large network in the space, attended many of the leading events (from which some summaries are included with the report) and have a key understanding of the current industry dynamic.

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