Writing device drivers for the current generation of operating systems is a highly specialised area of advanced software development, with each operating system having its own distinctive highly technical learning curve, and requiring constant ongoing research to keep up with developments.  Supporting customers' ever more demanding requirements on an ever diversifying range of hardware platforms can be a support nightmare

Touch-Base has been in the business of writing touch screen and pointing device drivers since 1987.  We support a vast number of pointer devices on many of the most popular operating systems and supply drivers to many pointer device manufacturers and integrators.

Own Brand versions of the drivers enable manufacturers and distributors to deliver software that is precisely tailored to their product range. You can choose the controllers supported, their names and many of the default parameters. You can also supply you own support details, company logos and help files.

Branded drivers are available to manufacturers and integrators, for distribution with their products.  Supplying own-branded Touch-Base drivers with your products makes sense:

• When using installable drivers the installation will show your logo and touch controller list

• The software carries your company name, logo and support information

• No references are made to competing products or manufacturers

• Controller names and default parameters exactly match your products

• Lower cost than writing and supporting your own drivers

• Satisfied customers - our drivers work

• Proven software installed in thousands of sites

• Software continually being developed and enhanced

• Support and backup from experts in their field
  
  

Choosing Touch-Base branded drivers is like having your own in-house software team, with experience of many pointing devices, and experience of all kinds of difficult software environments.

Driver Distribution

We recognise that many customers think drivers should be given away free with the hardware, and competitive pressures often tend to dictate this. We can't compete on price with the ‘free’ software offered by some manufacturers, but we do offer our branded drivers at competitive prices, and we are constantly striving to add value to our driver packages.  All we ask of you in return for these low prices is that you supply the drivers as if they were your own.  That is, that you distribute them with your hardware in exactly the same circumstances that you would if you had written them yourself.  No one wants to supply drivers that will never be used, but you must supply a driver license with every unit destined for an environment which would benefit from one.

Which drivers you wish to give away and which drivers you wish to re-sell is often highly dependent on the precise hardware package being offered, its price sensitivity, and its end-user market.  We aim to give you the flexibility you need, at prices which make sense for you, and which enable us to invest in the increasingly complex drivers which you will need in the future.

Driver Availability

Each driver offers various degrees of OEM customisation. Our drivers cater for every imaginable method of emulating button presses, and a whole host of configuration options enables the drivers to be customised to suit any application or personal preference.

Universal Pointer Device Driver for Windows XP thru Windows 10

UPDDWin is a high performance installable device driver for Windows desktop systems

Universal Pointer Device Driver for Windows CE

UPDDCE is a high performance device driver for Windows CE embedded.

Universal Pointer Device Driver for Mac X

UPDDMacX is a high performance device driver for MacOS.

Universal Pointer Device Driver for Linux

UPDDLinux is a high performance device driver for Linux.

Universal Pointer Device Driver for Android

UPDDAndroid is a high performance device driver for Android.

Getting Started

For our part:

• Working with you to determine your configuration and customisation requirements

• Software and installation customisation.

• Preparation and signing of a Licence Distribution Agreement.

For your part, the following tasks are required:

• Review and sign the agreement.
  

Depending on level of branding required, supply some, all or none of the following

• Supply logos (install logo = ilogo.png, size = 200 x 80 / UPDD Console, About logo = logo.png, size = 400 x 150).

• Supply icons (.ico with large and small icon, 32 x32 .png and 16 x 16 .png)

• Supply support text for UPDD Console, About, Support dialog.

• For Unit Licence holders, police and report the usage of the drivers as defined in the agreement.

Licensing Options

Unit Licence: A minimum order of 100 units per order allows you to enter a Unit Licence agreement.  The order can be for one specific driver or mixed from the product range. Permanent Licence: A Permanent Licence is an unlimited licence to copy and distribute or sell the driver (to owners of your hardware products) forever.  Permanent licence holders must commit to an annual Major Client Support charge for each year that the driver is being distributed to cover maintenance, support and upgrades.

Warranty

Any type of driver licence comes with an automatic three month warranty which covers bugs in the software. If, within three months of the start of the licence contract, you deliver to us a bug description or test case, complete with everything we need to reproduce and work on the problem, and we determine it to be a fault in our software, we will undertake to provide a fix free of charge. If we can't fix the bug we will, if you wish, cancel your licence and refund your licence fee in full. However, three types of additional support and maintenance are available at extra cost as follows:

Standard Maintenance - Under a Standard Maintenance contract, the three month warranty period is extended to one year;

Extended Maintenance - An Extended Maintenance contract includes all the services provided under Standard Maintenance, but you can contact us for additional help and we will deal direct with the customer to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, if you wish;

Major Client Support - Includes all the services provided under Extended Maintenance, but with a high priority service and a greater acceptance of change and enhancement requests, although our discretion is still final.

Time and material basis – Where support is not taken or lapsed we offer support on a time and material basis.  This option is more relevant to the source code license under Linux whereby intermittent support may be required to advise or update the code to meet evolving requirements.  Emails and general queries and are always answered FOC – this option caters for situations whereby the enquiry requires considerable assistance and or development.

For more detail see our Maintenance Contract data sheet.

Prices

License Prices – Unit  licence

Lower prices can be negotiated for OEM’s that have regular monthly/quarterly orders and wish to purchase unit licenses.  This normally takes the form of monthly/quarterly price breaks based on quantity taken in the period.

Licence price – Permanent licence

The permanent licence price is based on each operating system set as follows:

Operating System	Cost (GBP)
Windows Desktop	15,000.00
Apple Mac X (Intel)	12,000.00
Linux (many distributions) – Installable	10,000.00
Win CE 5.x / 6.x / WEC 7.x / WEC 2013 – all included in cost	10,000.00
Android	10,000.00

Licence price – Alternative

The above licences offerings are based on the licencing methods preferred by most OEM customers. However, if your preferred method of licencing differs from those offered above we are open to other suggestions. Please contact us to discuss further.

Maintenance and support costs

Warranty:	Free of charge
Standard Maintenance:	12% of order
Extended Maintenance:	24% of order
Major Client Support:	30% of order
Time and material basis	GBP60 per hour

Discounts

Where more than one product of the same type is ordered on the same purchase order, discounts are allowed as follows:

2nd driver       20%, 3rd  or more   30%

There is no discount on support charges. Support charges apply to the full price.

Examples

Unit licences

Say, for example, you wish to take up an order of 100 copies of UPDD Windows Desktop and 100 copies of UPDD CE. With a standard maintenance contract the costs would be as follows:

100 copies of UPDD CE	£1,600		£1,600.00
100 copies of UPDD Windows	£2,000		£2,000.00
Discount	(3,600 x 20%)		-£720.00
Standard Maintenance	12% of £3,600.00		£432.00
		Total:	£3,312.00

Permanent Licence

Say, for example, you wish to take up an order for permanent licences for the UPDD drivers for Linux and Windows Desktop. With a mandatory maintenance contract the cost would be as follows:

Permanent licence for UPDD Linux	10,000.00		£10,000.00
Permanent licence for UPDD Windows Desktop	15,000.00		£15,000.00
Discount	(25,000 x 20%)		-£5,000.00
Major Client Support Maintenance	30% of £25,000.00		£7,500.00
		Total:	£28,500.00

Copyright and intellectual property rights

At all times, copyright in the driver software and documentation remains the property of Touch-Base.  Although we allow your company name to appear as the software vendor, our copyright must appear on all documentation and software.  The Licence Agreement defines the full set of conditions.

Contact

For further information or technical assistance please email the sales team at sales@touch-base.com