Microsoft pens deal to acquire N-trig

Microsoft has finally confirmed that it has acquired N-trig, the firm behind its popular Surface Pen for the Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3.

The deal, which was reported on the Surface blog, sees the advanced digital pen technology become a part of Microsoft and follows years of work between the two on the technology currently inside Microsoft products.

Rumours of the deal first began flying earlier this year when it was reported that Microsoft spent some $200 million (about £132 million, or AU$255) to acquire the Israeli firm and it's anticipated that N-trig's 190 employees will migrate to Microsoft's office in Israel.

Massive increase in usage

The Surface Pen has seen a "massive increase in usage" on the Surface Pro 3 Panos Panay, chief of Microsoft's Surface hardware group, told the Wall Street Journal, and that comes after it was redesigned with N-trig DuoSense technology that has 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Microsoft's N-trig digitizing technology competes against Wacom. Microsoft had previously used Wacom's pen technology on the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 before the switch to N-trig on the Surface Pro 3. Samsung is a current investor in Wacom, and the company also uses Wacom's tech in its S Pen on the Galaxy Note series.

Combine this with the added handwriting functionality that will big a big part of Windows 10 and the newly unveiled Edge browser, and you begin to realise that acquiring N-trig was quite simply a no brainer.

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