This report includes a comprehensive review of the technology, players, and market for haptics. The report covers each major type of haptic technology, from the electromagnetic actuators that dominate the market today, to the wide range of emerging actuator options which are also being developed. It also contains detailed discussions around each target market for haptics, including deployment in smartphones, gaming, wearables, AR, VR & MR and other consumer electronics markets, automotive haptics, and a variety of other applications from medical to military and more. For the first time in this edition, the report also includes databases of players and products in haptics, as well as full historic market data back to 2010 and forecasts to 2031. IDTechEx analysts have been covering haptics for more than five years, and this report presents the major findings, opinions and data which have been developed over this time.
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. These haptic effects have a significant amount of variation. Historically, the most prominent application has been around providing notifications via a vibration alert. However, in the last five years there has been significant expansion around other effects, from input confirmation and button replacement, to advanced high definition effects to simulate different virtual sensations. This expansion in use cases is driven by the underlying actuator technology, where new types of actuators, drivers and systems enable the introduction of new effects and the creation of more product value using advanced haptics.
Haptic feedback has 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 a result, haptic feedback technology is already deployed in many billions of devices on the market today, with numbers increasing significantly 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.
The report takes a systematic approach to looking at every prominent type of technology for haptics, and the markets/products in which they are included. The report looks at various incumbent technologies, including the prominent electromagnetic actuators that dominate the market today: linear resonant actuators (LRAs) and eccentric rotating mass (ERM) motors. It also lists many different emerging and more niche haptic actuator technologies, from other electromagnetic actuators such as voice coil motors (VCMs) and other custom variants, to other technologies such as piezoelectric actuators (ceramic, composite and polymer based), shape memory alloys, microfluidic systems, electrostatic systems and several other niche or emerging systems. 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 descriptions of the key technology principles, examples of product implementation, interviews with key players, historic market data, market forecasts and independent assessments of the potential for each technology area.
This includes looking at specific product data back to 2010, including sales volumes 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.
Historic data on the haptics market, including device sales, spend per device, percentage of devices with haptics and haptics revenue. Full historic data from 2010-2020 and market forecasts from 2021-2031 are included with the report.
Source: IDTechEx
This data reveals several significant challenges and opportunities for haptics. For example, smartphones remain the critical market for haptics, accounting for over 50% of the total revenue in 2020 and allowing the industry to rise to unprecedented sales volumes for actuators. In parallel, the launch of the PS5 with the DualSense controller in 2020 has driven a new focus towards haptics as it relates to console gaming and related interfaces. However, as volume growth in these key industries has plateaued, companies throughout the value chain are exploring new opportunities where haptics can generate additional value.
For example, haptics is 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. For the first time, this report also comes with a database of companies and products within the haptics space, compiled along with the research. The report also contains more than 30 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 for more than 5 years, with parallel relevant technology coverage going back even further. This means that IDTechEx has developed a large network in the space, attended many of the leading events, and has a key understanding of the current industry dynamic.
Haptics 20US$ 5,995