Source: Touch Display Research, Active pen technologies supply chain and market forecast 2016 report.

“The active pen industry landscape has changed dramatically from 2014 to 2016. The number of companies actively working on active pen technology has increased from 60 companies in 2014 to over 100 companies in 2016,” said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, CEO and Principal Analyst at Touch Display Research. “Digital pen input is very useful in education, certain language input, medical, finance, industry applications, and content creation. Active pen technology is superior to passive technology in terms of accuracy, pressure sensing, and input of fine lines. We forecast that active pen usage will grow rapidly for the next several years.”

• Microsoft acquired N-trig’s pen technology in May 2015.
• Apple entered the active pen market in November 2015 with its own pen technology.
• Many active pen companies have raised capital through Kickstarter. Over ten thousand individuals have backed those pen projects.
• Dr. Colegrove, author of this report, has conducted many first-hand interviews of active pen suppliers and OEMs that have adopted active pens in recent nine years.
• All the devices with active pen are compared side-by-side with pen suppliers in a single chart in the Excel database.
• CES 2016 Active pen exhibitions are covered in this report.
• The challenges of active pen technology and business strategy recommendations are provided.
• Over one hundred companies are profiled and supply chain analysis with many companies is included.
• A prediction for the 2016 winner is in Chapter Four. The strengths and weaknesses of key players are analyzed.
• The attitude of twelve leading brands toward active pen is analyzed.
• This report provides a Bill of Material (BOM) analysis of active pen modules for “pen only” and “pen and finger” touch.
• Market data in the report includes 2013 to 2015 history shipments and forecasts from 2016 to 2021.
• The market forecast includes Unit, active pen module ASP, and Revenue, with a detailed breakdown by eight application devices: mobile phone and phablet, tablet and hybrid tablet PC, notebook PC, signature pad (retail, finance, service, etc), eReader writer, graphic pen board (without display), public signage/interactive board, and other applications.
• Regional analysis is also provided in this report.
• http://touchdisplayresearch.com/?page_id=2360