Windows 7's touching impact on 2010 hardware sales?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 11 June 2009 15:04

Opinion and Analysis

Yes, multi-touch screens are still expensive, but prices will fall as production increases, because once people try it they’ll like it, and want it – already evidenced by the iPhone phenomenon.

You can even multi-touch type on a large on-screen keyboard if you want, arguably making the Win 7 Tablet PC multi-touch interface the most advanced available.

It’s also very interesting to see that Apple has including an oil-resistant coating to the iPhone 3G S multi-touch screen. This helps you more easily remove fingerprints and any oil from your face with a soft, lint-free cloth, rather than having residue on your screen that’s not easy to clean.

Clearly more rapid developments in exploring the true touch screen interface are now arriving, with the whole concept of touch itself to be massively upgraded by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 “Project Natal” whole body interface project just unveiled at this year’s E3 Gaming Expo.

While Windows 7 might not have a massive impact on hardware sales this year, but at least it’s launching more than early enough to capture all the Christmas, end-of-year, 2010 back-to-school, holiday shopping season, and not launching a new OS at the end of January as happened with Windows Vista!

Despite the economic crisis, new computer purchases will still happen this year, and much better sales could happen than Microsoft is predicting (and clearly purposefully pre-lowering expectations).

But as new multi-touch screens, notebooks, netbooks, Tablet PCs, the expected multi-touch Apple “MacBook” netbook arrives and multi-touch versions of Linux become popular, multi-touch’s momentum will be unstoppable, and that old touch-free PC you might have upgraded won’t be the PC you’ll be using once a new multi-touch model is in your life.

Maybe 2010 is too soon, and 2011 is more realistic, but multi-touch technology has finally matured to the iPhone level for PCs, will be available at retail, and despite its sophistication is but the beginning.

Giving a PC your own personal touch won’t just be seen as changing your screensaver, desktop background or sound scheme anymore, but a great new way to interact with your computer, the Internet and all that information in a more natural and human way than ever before. About time!