Feb/Mar 2008

Destiny, the UK company synonymous with digital pen applications, has taken a significant leap into hardware manufacture by acquiring the assets and intellectual property rights relating to Logitech's io2 digital pen range. This means Destiny will in future be able to supply its own digital pen hardware to support its mobile data and field service implementations.

In a simultaneous announcement, Destiny has revealed that Anoto, the Swedish company behind the digital pen technology itself, is to become a master reseller for the io2 range, extending its potential reach to other Anoto partners worldwide.

Under the deal with Logitech, Destiny has acquired the io2 trading name and software, as well as dedicated tooling and stock. Logitech will continue to manufacture and support the pens for 18 months.

Destiny says the deal gives it dedicated production capability, manufacturing economies of scale, research and development investment, brand awareness and a significant increase in the overall value of its business.

 

An attractive feature of the Logitech pen, it says, is the fact that it has barcode reading capability as well as Anoto compatibility. Destiny sees this as giving it significant technological and commercial differentiation.

Unlike barcodes, whose meaning is embodied in the actual code, Anoto technology reads freeform data, relying on special paper with a near-invisible grid printed on it to interpret it correctly. The pen identifies the location of handwritten information through the grid, and the text is then converted to data and allocated to an appropriate database field.

Destiny claims to hold a 90 per cent UK share of the UK's B2B market for forms processing with digital pen and paper technology, though there are also other suppliers (see page 38). It has chosen Logitech pens for various existing implementations, and says it now hopes to extend the product's reach into areas such as North America.