Summary as of April 26, 2005, Updated September 2, 2005

[nomaded]

[aegis]

[Shawn_Milo]

So, does no one know who has acquired them, and what their plans are for the company and (more importantly) product line?

[TorbenGB]

No, that's still not revealed, but you can be sure it will be posted here as soon as clues are given.

[Chopstick]

[John]

Wasn't there a request by the fingerworks developers for happy experiences pairing COMPAQ with touchstreams to use in an upcoming negotiation?

[Guest]

[phill]

[Guest]

This is somewhat tongue in cheek but some will come true:

If MS has Fingerworks, we can expect:

"keyboard activation". When plugging in the keyboard you have to supply a "keyboard key"

Activate the keyboard within 14 days.

Also, your firmware will be automatically updated for you with no choice which also happen to mysteriously overwrite some of your user settings.

Future versions will not work on a Mac/Linux/whatever anymore.

And of course, Fingerworks forum to be replaced and rolled into MSDN and tech support by the greatest tech support team on earth: Microsoft's...

[TorbenGB]

As an ex-microsofter, I should resent that comment, but strangely enough, I don't.
I thought of a different multi-billion dollar supplier of IT software and hardware = IBM. Thoughts, anyone?

[bradheintz]

My thoughts on the "who" of it were MS, Apple, HP, and IBM. There just aren't that many firms that fit the multi-billion dollar HW/SW vendor profile. And I don't know why such a company would acquire FW - which is a small niche hardware provider - unless they had a specific, medium-to-large vertical market application where they thought the technology would give them a specific edge.

What worries me about that is that they'd have no need to continue what must be a pretty small retail business with the consumer-oriented products. If I'm right that they'd be targeting enterprise sales tied to a particular vertical app, then low-volume consumer sales would just be an albatross around the neck of the more lucrative business.

Then again, maybe they want to make the TouchStream (or its successor) an option on every HP/Compaq desktop or laptop they sell from this day forward. I really hope I'm wrong about the vertical enterprise sales being the enemy of - well, us. But be ready for it, either way.

My $.02,
- B

[ken gray]

[bradheintz]

[Guest]

[mboeing]

[guest]

[Tim H]

[Tim H]

[nomaded]

[ken gray]

[Rqyteqto]

[ken gray]

[nomaded]

[ken gray]