Wacom, a company specializing in tablets, announced its business strategy for this year at 'CES 2016'. The company stated that it plans to actively target the 3D market and creative education sectors this year, while also gradually expanding its investment in software, such as adding a text conversion feature to Bamboo Spark.

Increased interest and investment in the 3D market

At CES 2016, Wacom plans to demonstrate firsthand how its technology can be utilized in 3D design. It will showcase its flagship Cintiq LCD tablet as an efficient method for creating 3D objects, from sketching to product completion. 3D technology is becoming a core component of the creative field, and most 3D artists, designers, and engineers use Wacom's professional LCD tablets, the Cintiq and Intuos Pro. Creative professionals prefer Wacom tablets for their natural and intuitive pressure-sensitive pen functions, ergonomics, work speed, and the ability to freely use all major 3D app software.

Jeff Mandell, Vice President of Wacom’s Brand Business, said, “Going forward, Wacom plans to add 3D-optimizers to existing products and provide customized 3D products that meet the diverse needs of customers. This will help redesign 3D designs without major changes to the work environment.”

Easily convert handwriting to text

Wacom’s smart folio, Bamboo Spark, is a product that allows users to digitally save handwriting written on paper, and a recent update to the Bamboo Spark app supports a new feature that converts handwriting into text. Handwriting images synchronized to the Bamboo Spark app are converted into text via the 'Export to Text' function, and the content can be shared with others by exporting it to text messages, emails, Evernote, OneNote, or other tools. Bamboo Spark's new text conversion feature supports 13 languages, including English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Mike Gay, Vice President of Consumer Products at Wacom, said, “Wacom is working to add various features to the Bamboo Spark, such as text conversion, for the convenience of users. The ink-to-text conversion feature can be utilized in a variety of ways. This feature is very useful for students who want to share class notes with study groups, or for office workers who want to save meeting content with clients to use in future presentations.”

Increased investment in creative education

Wacom announced that it is strengthening its investment in the field of creative education through the development of new products and marketing programs. Products such as the Cintiq and Intuos Pro have already established themselves as global standards in the education market. Wacom's products integrate seamlessly with software apps that offer over 100 pressure-sensing functions, allowing teachers and students to utilize Wacom's products and technologies to provide a fast, natural, and intuitive pen experience. Renowned educational institutions worldwide, including the Savannah College of Art and Design (SACD) and Ringling in the U.S., as well as Chungkang College of Culture & Industry in Korea and Sheridan College in Canada, have either adopted or plan to adopt Wacom tablets. Wacom stated that it plans to gradually expand its support for training and tutorials, as well as support for high-level educational bundled creative software.